During a board meeting of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again called Crimea "Russian state territory", and the conflict in Donbas – "Ukraine’s internal crisis". At the same time, Putin accused Ukraine of non-compliance with the Minsk agreements.
This is stated on the Kremlin’s website.
"Of course, Ukraine’s internal crisis is among the most pressing and sensitive issues for us, which has so far remained unresolved. Demonstratively, Ukraine has failed to fulfil its obligations under the Minsk Package of Measures, as well as the Normandy format agreements," Putin said.
“By the way, we must not forget that the Minsk agreements have become a norm of international law since the UN Security Council adopted the relevant resolutions. Unfortunately, in reality, [Germany and France] are indulging the current Kiev leadership’s course on dismantling the [Minsk agreements], which, unfortunately, has led the talks and the settlement itself into a dead end,” Putin claimed.
At the same time, Putin does not say a word about Russian militants in Donbas regularly violating the ceasefire agreement. Including the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements.
Moreover, currently Russia’s provocations are more frequent than before. In the last 6th time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have suffered many losses. Russian militants are at the peak of their activity.
At the same time, as expected, Putin again cynically called the occupied Crimea "the territory of the Russian Federation". At the same time, he accused the West and the NARO of regularly appearing in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula, mentioning the U.S. strategic bombers.
“Importantly, our Western partners are exacerbating the situation by supplying Kiev with modern lethal weapons, conducting provocative military exercises in the Black Sea and other regions close to our borders. With regard to the Black Sea, this even goes beyond certain limits since strategic bombers, which carry very serious weapons, fly at a distance of only 20 kilometres from our state border,” Putin stated.