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Ukraine parliamentarians: 'The best chance for peace' in the East European country

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YuriSenior Opposition parliamentarians from Ukraine say the Minsk agreement offers "the best chance for peace" in the war-torn East European country.

The MPs were speaking during a visit to the European Parliament where they met leading MEPs to discuss issues related to the conflict.

Yuriy Boyko (pictured left), a former deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, who led the delegation, said he believes the peace deal agreed in Minsk offered the best chance for a "lasting" solution to the war.

Under the ceasefire reached in the Belarus capital in February both sides in the Ukraine conflict were due to pull back heavy weapons by the beginning of March.

The two sides are due to create a buffer zone between them of at least 50km for artillery of 100mm calibre or more, 70km for multiple rocket systems and 140km for the heaviest rockets and missiles.

The ceasefire appears to be taking hold despite continuing clashes. The opposing sides have accused each other of breaking the truce or using it as a cover to regroup.

Boyko, who is better known as the Minister of fuel and energy in Ukraine in 2010 to 2012, said the Opposition bloc, a newly created entity representing six political parties in the country, supported the terms of the Minsk agreement.

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Addressing a briefing with journalists  in Parliament on Tuesday, he said, "The military conflict has got to stop in order to avoid further tragedy. It is also not in the interest of Europe to have such military insecurity so close to its borders so, yes, this (Minsk) is our best chance for peace."

He said, "I was in Eastern Ukraine last week and I saw people starting to return to their homes. Step by step the military conflict is decreasing to the point where, hopefully, it will finally end. I also believe Russia wants to stop the military action."

The two-day visit to Brussels comes on the eve of a key summit of EU leaders, who meet in Brussels on Thursdayand Friday (20 March) to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and, possibly, increasing sanctions against Russia.

As well as Boyko, the delegation is made up of Oleksandr Vilkul, also a former vice PM and ex-chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration and MPs Vadim Rabinovych, chairman of the political party "Center" and president of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, Julia Lyovochkina and Volodymyr Husak.

"Opposition Bloc" was formed in November by six political parties that took part in parliamentary elections last October.

The alliance took fourth place in the poll, winning 1,486,203 votes, nearly 10% of the popular vote. It led in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Lugansk and Kharkiv.

During their visit to Brussels the delegation highlighted a "peace plan", including a peace keeping mission, put forward by the Opposition Bloc on 27 January.

This was subsequently rejected by the Ukrainian parliament but the fact that it has since been adopted by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko illustrates, say the MPs, how the opposition in Ukraine is "totally overlooked."

The package of proposals first initiated by Opposition Bloc at the start of the year acknowledges the "impossibility" of solving the conflict by military means and calls for "all measures" to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those most in need, mostly in Eastern Ukraine.

Most of the proposals are, the MPs point out, covered by the ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk and state that the Ukrainian government "must appeal to the UN for a military peacekeeping contingent to ensure lasting peace."

In the news briefing in the European Parliament, Rabinovych underlined that Opposition bloc is "pro-Ukrainian", adding that it wanted to see a "united, not divided" country.

He said, "We have come to Brussels basically to introduce ourselves and bring forward a plan on how we want things to change in Ukraine."

 

Opposition bloc is not aligned with any political groupings in the European parliament and Rabinovych added, "This short visit is an also an opportunity find political partners though it is too early to talk about that."

He decried the fact that the Ukrainian government budget does not currently allocate funding to the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine, the region which is most affected by the war.

 

"They say that it is not their territory so why provide funding for the reconstruction? This is probably the biggest separation in Ukraine at the moment. What we are calling for is an equal approach for all regions in Ukraine, including Donbas."

 

UK MEP Charles Tannock, ECR spokesman on foreign affairs, also spoke at the briefing, saying he looked forward to a "stable, peaceful and prosperous" Ukraine.

 

He said he "better undestood" the differences between the Opposition and government parties in Ukraine after meeting the delegation.

 

Tannock also called for an economic aid programme in order to stabilise the economy in Ukraine which he said was in a "perilous" state.

 

At least 6,000 people are believed to have been killed and more than one million have fled their homes since conflict erupted last April in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The U.S. EU and Ukraine say Russia is supplying the separatists with troops and weapons. Russia denies the allegations.

 

More than 80 trucks with humanitarian aid crossed into rebel-held areas on Sunday. Ukraine has begun receiving the first €4.72 billion tranche of €16.5bn aid from the International Monetary Fund aid.

 

The loan is part of a €37.7bn package to rescue the nation's economy as it buckles under a plunging hryvnia currency and the fighting which has crippled its industrial heartland.

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