Ahead of a critical new round of peace talks in Minsk, Belarus, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia-backed separatists of unleashing a brutal offensive that killed civilians in Ukrainian-controlled areas of Donetsk Oblast.
Poroshenko said that longer-range Smerch missiles struck 41 buildings occupied by civilians and killed at least 13 “mostly peaceful residents” and wounded many others on the eve of the summit. He called the renewed violence against civilians as crimes against humanity.
Speaking before the Cabinet of Ministers on Feb. 11, Poroshenko said that Ukraine has to prepare for both options: peace and continued warfare. “We also have to do everything possible to supply the army” and others on the front lines.
If the peace talks fail to reach an immediate cease-fire, Poroshenko said that the “fighting spirit” of the military is high. “If we have to defend our land, we will do it until the end,” he said. “I am convinced that Ukraine can defend itself.”
Poroshenko will be joined in the four-way Minsk talks with Russian President Petro Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
He said Feb. 11 is “possibly the most critical, the most important day in Ukraine’s history” and that the European Union “will stand with the same position at the Minsk summit, and will speak with one voice.”
Poroshenko said he had just returned from the war zone, where he met with victims struck on Feb. 10.
“There was a missile which went right through the building,” Poroshenko said. “There are pictures that a regular human being cannot stand.” He talked of a three-year-old child whose mother was killed. The child lost an arm and had to be saved with an all-night operation.
“I visited the hospital and they all said the same thing: We want peace, we want to live in Ukraine. We want a single Ukraine. We want order and want the troops of the aggressor to leave the territory of Ukraine,” Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko said he will press for an unconditional cease-fire because “every day Ukraine pays with tens of lives. This barbarian, animal, non-human aggression is costing lives. We need consolidation and unity more than ever, responsibility and effectiveness of all branches of power.”
Poroshenko talked about Ukrainian military successes on Feb. 10.
“Yesterday we had several successful operations (around Debaltseve), and planned a successful counter-offensive with the Azov Battalions. As a result of the counter-attack, we moved the line of contact exactly back to the Minsk line. I don’t want anyone to interpret it is an offensive. No, we get back to the line of the Minsk agreement,” Poroshenko said.
The other aim of the counter-offensive by Ukraine’s military was to make it “impossible to hit the residential areas in Mariupol with Grads,” he said.
The attacks by Russian forces and their proxies on residential areas in Mariupol and Kramatorsk are “crimes against humanity.” He continued to insist he is “a president of peace, and I understand that we cannot solve the conflict in Donbas via military means.”
He said the nation’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has received more than 150 job applications and that he is prepared to “create an unprecedented atmosphere for corruption fight.” He also pledged decentralization of powers and taxes to local branches of government. And he said he will ask Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Hroysman to head a constitutional commission for changes.
“I hope that in the next local election we will elect new local governments with new responsibilities,” Poroshenko said. “Ukraine was, is and will remain a unitary state. More than 50 percent are people stand for a unitary state. The ideas of federalization are being imposed, exported to us by the neighboring state. Ironically it’s one of the most centralized states. Federalization is a seed that will not survive in Ukraine’s ground. There are areas where there will be no decentralization: defense, security, fight with corruption, rights and freedoms of people, and territorial unity of the state. There will be no compromise on the issue of single state language. But we guarantee protection of regional languages.. without limitations.”
Poroshenko said that, despite a Russian disinformation war, mobilization for military service “will be conducted as planned, but with a different pace in different regions.”
He also praised the Security Service of Ukraine for breaking up anti-Ukrainian activities.
“More than weapons we need unity,” Poroshenko said. “Along with the prime minister, we demonstrate team play and… are ready to share responsibility for the decisions we take. It does not mean that we don’t have discussions. Some of them are very heated, but the success is in finding common points of view and approaches, including in international negotiations. When the prime minister, minister, president and parliament are speaking in unison, no enemy can overcome us.”
