Poroshenko's Calls on Russia to Close Border With Ukraine Baffling: Moscow

© Sputnik / Mikhail Markiv / Go to the mediabankUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s call for Moscow to close the Russian-Ukrainian border is “baffling,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s call for Moscow to close the Russian-Ukrainian border is “baffling,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday - Sputnik International
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Moscow awaits to receive an official explanation from Kiev in regard to Poroshenko’s call to close the borders between Russia and Ukraine.

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MOSCOW, December 11 (Sputnik) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s call for Moscow to close the Russian-Ukrainian border is “baffling,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.

“Such statements [of closing the Russian-Ukrainian border] are baffling and confusing to be honest,” Lukashevich said during a briefing in Moscow.

“First of all, we have said over and over that there have not been and there are not now any Russian military troops in Ukraine, so there’s nothing to pull out,” Lukashevich added.

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Moscow also awaits to receive an official explanation from Kiev in regard to Poroshenko’s call to close the borders between the two countries.

“Obviously additional explanations are needed from the Ukrainian president’s announcement [while he was] in Australia. I think we will use a whole range of channels to ask for an official explanation of this position,” Lukashevich said.

"Obviously additional explanations are needed from the Ukrainian president's announcement [while he was] in Australia. I think we will use a whole range of channels to ask for an official explanation of this position," Lukashevich said.

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Poroshenko Once Again Lays Responsibility for Ukrainian Conflict on Russia
Earlier in the day, Poroshenko, at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, urged Russia to close the border with Ukraine, claiming that such a move would lead to peace and stability in Ukraine within a few weeks of its introduction.

He also once again laid the responsibility for the situation in the southeast of the country on Russia.

Kiev authorities, together with Western leaders, have consistently accused Russia of participating in the military conflict in southeastern Ukraine since it started in mid-April.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in Ukraine's internal affairs, urging Kiev to settle the conflict peacefully through dialogue.

Military operations were launched by Kiev in April to suppress independence supporters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian government that had come to power following what they considered to be a coup.

UN data estimates that over 4,300 people have been killed and almost 10,000 have sustained injuries since the beginning of the armed conflict.

Moscow Slams Ukrainian Bill Declaring Donetsk, Luhansk Terrorists

A bill to designate self-proclaimed Ukrainian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR, LPR) as terrorist organizations is nothing more than a nonsense and an attempt to wind down peace talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

“This is just a legal nonsense and absurdity. Moreover, I think that this action reveals the determination by the warmongers to swerve off the path of political settlement and de-escalation toward a military operation,” the ministry’s spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said.

According to local media reports, a bill, according to which the DPR and LPR are recognized as terrorist organizations, was introduced in Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on Wednesday.

Lukashevich pointed out that it was documented in the Minsk agreements that the parties to Ukraine's conflict were "Kiev and militias in Luhansk and Donetsk regions" and if one side presents the other side as a terrorist movement or organization, "the point of the further dialogue is unclear."

On September 5, Ukrainian authorities and representatives of the country's breakaway republics met in Minsk, and with the mediation Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), reached a set of agreements on the de-escalation of the Ukrainian conflict

Among the key provisions of Minsk peace plan was the introduction of a law granting a special status to parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, also known as the Donbas.

The law guaranteed self-administration, the right to use Russian or any other language and scheduled local elections for December 7.

However, the authorities of Donetsk and Luhansk have laid claim to the territories in whole within their respective Ukrainian administrative entities and held elections for the heads of local governments and representatives of legislative bodies on November 2.

Following the vote, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the elections illegal and announced his plans to scrap the special status of the Donbas.

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