KIEV, May 21 (RIA Novosti) – The active phase of special operations in Ukraine’s eastern regions is continuing and military personnel are carrying out their orders, an operations officer in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
“The active phase of the anti-terrorist operations is currently continuing. Residents in the eastern regions of Ukraine can observe this. There is currently a planned rotation of troops and forces included in the anti-terrorist operation,” Vladislavo Seleznyov said.
Seleznyov made the remarks while commenting on whether the operation is continuing as the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a memorandum calling for the withdrawal of the country’s troops from eastern regions to their permanent bases
Seleznyov added that the mission is currently being carried out on a full scale.
In response to growing tensions in Ukraine’s eastern regions, the Ukrainian government announced the beginning of a special operation to crack down on the protesters in mid-April. The operation that allowed for the use of military force led to dozens of deaths and injuries.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, ratified the text of a “memorandum of peace and consent” after two months of armed clashes in the country’s eastern Donetsk region.
The document reiterates Ukraine’s non-aligned status and stipulates that the country may only join a political or economic union if the majority of the population votes in favor in a nationwide referendum.
It renounces the use of force by all sides and condemns violence, reinstates the special status of the Russian language and envisages constitutional reforms to decentralize power in the country. The memorandum also calls for the pulling back of the country’s military to their permanent bases and banning criminal charges against protest activists.
