Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk believes Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t just want to take eastern Ukraine — he wants the whole country.
“His aim is not just to take Donetsk and Lugansk,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said during a conference in Kiev on Saturday, Business Insider reported. “His goal is to take the entire Ukraine. […] He wants to eliminate Ukraine as an independent country,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said.
The Prime Minister said that Mr. Putin would wipe out the country, despite the truce deal signed on Sept. 5, saying the deal was just a “first step” to “stop a massacre” in eastern Ukraine where fighting has been rampant for five months.
He said Russia alone was to blame for the violence in eastern Ukraine, which began when pro-Russian separatists launched a violent uprising.
“The only person who is destabilizing the situation is Putin,” Mr. Yatsenyuk added, Business Insider reported. “We are in a state of war and the key aggressor is the Russian Federation.”
On Saturday, intermittent violence in eastern Ukraine continued to rage. The government-held airport of Donetsk was hit with artillery fire, although no casualties were announced, the Associated Press reported. Although not always honored, a cease-fire agreement has officially been in place since last week.
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• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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