MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Dmytro Gutsulyak announced earlier of Friday that Kiev was planning to hold live-firing drills with Buk-M1 air defense systems at the Yagorlyk firing range in the Kherson region in southeastern Ukraine.
"It is obvious that saber-rattling attitudes in Ukraine are gaining momentum, so I do not rule out the demonstration of force during the drills in the Kherson region," Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma (lower house) Committee on International Affairs, said.
Kiev initially launched its military operation in the country's southeast in April 2014, after locals refused to recognize new authorities that came to power as the result of a coup in February 2014. In February 2015, a peace agreement sponsored by Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany went into effect. Key points of the agreement include a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact, and constitutional reforms in Ukraine which would decentralize authority and grant the Donbass region special status. The ceasefire has generally held, with both sides reporting repeated violations. Progress on implementing the Minsk accords has been lacking, however.
According to the UN, the Ukrainian civil war has resulted in the deaths of nearly 10,000 people; over 22,000 others have been wounded, and the war has resulted in the displacement of over 2.3 million people (1.4 million of which fled abroad).
