UNITED NATIONS, January 30 (Sputnik) — Ukraine's Ambassador to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, on Friday blamed the recent attacks in the country's east on the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics and urged the international community to recognize them as terrorist organizations.
"We also call on the international community to respond resolutely to the crimes of terrorists, increase all forms of pressure on those who sponsor and support them. Our position remains constant – the so-called 'DNR' and 'LNR' must be recognized as terrorist organizations," Sergeyev said in a statement.
"Let me remind you that the same tactics the terrorists used after shooting down the passenger plane MH17 and shelling of the passenger busIn in Volnovakha. At first they cheered themselves as they thought they destroyed Ukrainian military airplane or block post. But after they realized they killed civilians the terrorists started to blame the Ukrainian Army," the statement read.
Last week, the deputy speaker of the DPR's parliament Denis Pushilin said that Kiev's claims that the Donetsk militia carried out the attack in the city of Mariupol are a "provocation" aimed at escalating the armed conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
The self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and Kiev authorities have been involved in a bloody conflict since mid-April, when the government launched a military campaign against the independence supporters in southeastern Ukraine. Fighting in the region has intensified dramatically over the past weeks with multiple instances of deadly shelling killing dozens of civilians in Donetsk, Mariupol and other cities.
On Thursday in its annual world report Human Rights Watch said that the use of indiscriminate weapons, such as Grad multiple rocket launchers, by the Ukrainian government forces in fighting independence supporters in the southeast of the country has resulted in the killing of large numbers of civilians.
