MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council to discuss the situation in southeastern Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday.
“The main issue on the agenda was the situation in Ukraine’s southeast,” the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said.
The meeting was attended Thursday by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and his deputy Rashid Nurgaliyev, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Federal Security Service Head Alexander Bortnikov among other senior officials.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko outlined his plan for resolving the crisis in southeastern Ukraine to President Putin in a phone conversation. Putin made a number of remarks on the peace plan and emphasized that Kiev’s special operation in southeastern Ukraine should be stopped immediately.
Since mid-April, Kiev authorities have been conducting a special military operation to suppress the pro-independence movement. Hundreds of people, including civilians, have died in the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics in the east of Ukraine over the past months.