Andrei Marochko, the spokesman of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) militia, voiced his hope on Saturday that Ukrainian authorities would sit down at the negotiating table with the new leaders of the LPR and the neighboring Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) after the elections in the LPR and the DPR.
LUHANSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th November, 2018) Andrei Marochko, the spokesman of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) militia, voiced his hope on Saturday that Ukrainian authorities would sit down at the negotiating table with the new leaders of the LPR and the neighboring Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) after the elections in the LPR and the DPR.While the elections of leaders and lawmakers of the DPR and the LPR, both located in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, are scheduled for Sunday, Kiev has already announced that it does not recognize the elections.
"I hope that common sense will prevail over the ambitions of the Ukrainian oligarchs, and after elections are held in our republics, Kiev will sit down at the negotiating table with our elects," Marochko said, commenting on recent Ukrainian media reports on non-battle fatalities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrainian media reported earlier that the non-battle fatalities of the country's Armed Forces amounted to around 17,800 people during the Donbas conflict.
"As the day of the election approaches, Ukraine talks more and more about the catastrophic situation not only in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but also in the economy and other spheres," Marochko said.
The conflict in Donbas started in 2014, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the DPR and LPR that refused to recognize the new government in Kiev, which came to power after what they considered to be a coup. In 2015, a ceasefire agreement brokered by the leaders of the Normandy Four group (France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine) was reached in Minsk, but the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of violating the truce.
