Kiev Steps Up Economic Blockade of Donbas - Russian Foreign Ministry

President Poroshenko's proposals to introduce additional requirements for granting special status to Donbas derail the Minsk agreements, Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Kiev intensified social and economic blockade of Ukraine's embattled southeastern region, Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.

"Kiev is maintaining, and what is more, is stepping up Donbas' blockade, restricting travels of the residents from the militia-controlled areas to the rest of Ukraine, preventing them from crossing border with Russia, which is a direct violation of the Minsk accords," the statement posted on the ministry's official website said.

The blockade on Ukraine's breakaway regions that left a significant portion of its population without social benefits was imposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko last fall. In a decree signed on November 15, all banks and government institutions in the Donbas, including hospitals and schools, were suspended.

The region's two self-proclaimed republics, Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as the UN refugee agency and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, decried Kiev's economic restrictions as inhumane.

The issue was considered in crisis alleviation talks between the Contact Group negotiators last year and is part of the latest 13-point measures reached in the Belarusian capital of Minsk last month.

On Monday, Luhansk announced a move to bypass the stifling measures by launching a multi-currency payment system.

Kiev Sets Additional Preconditions for Special Status Bill in Breach of Minsk Deal

Moscow is extremely concerned by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s attempts to introduce a number of additional requirements for granting special status to eastern Ukrainian regions under control of self-proclaimed authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Under the February 12 Minsk agreements, Kiev only undertook to define geographical borders of areas that would be vested with a certain degree of self-autonomy under a previously passed bill, the ministry said.

“In breach of this obligation, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s proposals submitted to the Verkhovna Rada distort the very essence of the Minsk agreements by introducing a whole array of additional preconditions that have never been discussed before,” the statement reads.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko submitted a bill to the parliament that outlines the boundaries of particular districts in the breakaway eastern regions that could be granted "special status" within Ukraine.

According to Security Council's Deputy Secretary Mykhaylo Koval, the special status law will not apply to the areas captured by militia after September 19, 2014.

Besides, according to a legislative initiative introduced by Poroshenko to parliament on Monday, special status will be granted to eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk only following snap elections in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution.

Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters of Ukraine's east Donbas region in April 2014 following a government coup. The confrontation has claimed more than 6,000 lives, according to the latest UN estimates.