Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised the steps taken by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to improve the situation in the east of the country
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised the steps taken by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to improve the situation in the east of the country.
"In my opinion, [Zelenskyy] really wants to improve the situation in Donbas and elsewhere. I do not know yet how much he can do about that. There have been some positive steps � I mean the pullback of forces and weapons in two places although as recently as yesterday the military said there was still fire from the Ukrainian side," Putin said at VTB Capital forum "Russia Calling."
The president said he was expecting that the Ukrainian military and police would not go back to "gray areas" in Donbas.
"Still, I expect that there will not be any return to these 'gray areas' because we have already heard from some politicians that the National Guard of Ukraine and police should go to the places that the armed forces left. Yes, of course, the law and order should be maintained there, but we know well that the Ukrainian National Guard was made up largely of nationalist battalions," the president said.
He remarked that if these forces returned, "nothing good would come of it," and the two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine would respond in kind.
