You're reading: Yatsenyuk says Kyiv to regain control of Donbas after Minsk protocol is fulfilled and Russian troops leave Ukraine

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said that the quicker the Minsk agreements are implemented and Russian troops leave Donbas, the quicker the Ukrainian authorities will regain control of Ukraine's regions and cope with a humanitarian disaster.

“The situation is very complicated in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, since terrorists made hostages of those people who live there. And the more quickly the Minsk protocol is implemented, the more quickly Russian military and terrorists leave [Ukrainian] territory, we will be able to regain control of the respective territories and, consequently, people will not suffer,” he said, while opening a government meeting on Dec. 24.

Yatsenyuk stated that the humanitarian disaster in the territories not under Ukrainian control was due to the fact that “Russia does not fulfill the Minsk protocol, we have no access to territories, and Russian terrorists are operating there.”