MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Russia's representative to the Ukraine contact group said that Moscow decided to provide electricity to the Lugansk Republic after Kiev had cut the supplies citing debts.
"The de-energization of the Lugansk region is another step on the path of Ukraine's rejection of its territories. This is a step that contradicts the spirit of the Minsk agreements, which does not bring us closer to the implementation of these Minsk agreements, but rather distances us from the ultimate goal," Peskov told journalists. "Certainly, Russia has always done and is doing a lot, for humanitarian reasons, to help minimize the consequences for people who live in Donbass," he said.
In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.
