BELBEK AIRPORT (Sevastopol), (Sputnik) — Last week, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had eliminated a spy ring organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Crimea, which was preparing acts of sabotage on "critical and life-supporting elements of the peninsula's infrastructure."
"It is clear why it was done, they [Kiev] do not want or are unable to implement Minsk agreements for whatever reasons. And they cannot explain to their own people the significant lapses in socio-economic policy," Putin said at a security council session.
The Minsk deal on Ukraine's reconciliation was struck in February 2015 by Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France and later signed by Kiev and the Donbass self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Both warring parties have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce despite agreeing to the ceasefire deal.
"It seems that our partners in Kiev decided to escalate the situation, and it is clear why they decided to do it. The method of escalating the situation is well known and has been used for a long time. Sometimes it works, sometimes not," Putin said at a Russian Security Council briefing in Crimea.
