China expresses concern over renewed conflict in Ukraine
November 13, 2014, 4:51 am

File photo of Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe [Image: Nato]

China on Wednesday urged all parties in Ukraine to immediately implement the Minsk agreement so as to ensure that ceasefire is achieved.

Beijing is worried and concerned about “violent attacks that have continued to take place in eastern Ukraine”, said a Chinese envoy at a UNSC meet on Wednesday.

“We hope that all parties will continue to engage a constructive dialogue, with a view to agreeing on the balanced, lasting and comprehensive political solution,” said Wang Min, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN.

At the 26th UNSC meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday, officials were briefed that over the past weekend, particularly on the night of Nov. 9, hostilities were at their worst in months, with a heavy exchange of artillery shelling in and around Donetsk.

At the Security Council meet on Wednesday, Alexander Pankin, Russian envoy at the UN hit back at NATO’s claims of Russia sending troops across the border to fight slamming them as “the usual propagandistic falsifications”.

“On the contrary, over the past period the ceasefire is actually turning into a concentration of Ukrainian forces [on the lines of the front],” Pankin said, urging that the border could be monitored from space.

Nato Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Philip Breedlove has claimed the body can vouch for Russian military equipment and Russian combat troops entering Ukraine this week.

Even as Western statements are fueling fears of a return to all-out conflict are growing, Beijing reiterated its position at the UNSC, that “a political solution is the only way out on the question of Ukraine”.

The tension has escalated since the Ukrainian authorities decided to repeal a law which grants “special status” to Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian speaking regions, which raised fears that a process of prisoners-of-war swap may be disrupted.

On September 5, Ukrainian government forces and the separatist fighters reached a ceasefire agreement in Minsk. On September 19, the sides signed a memorandum specifying steps for the implementation of the Minsk protocol.

The opposing sides have subsequently accused one another of violating the truce.

More than 4000 people have dies in the conflict, says UN figures.

TBP and Agencies