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A spokesman for the US State Department tweets: "To be clear: the Administration does not plan to support a referendum in [eastern] Ukraine"
TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT. Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to US President Donald Trump before their meeting in Helsinki on July 16, 2018. Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP
MOSCOW, Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin made a concrete offer in Ukraine to his US counterpart Donald Trump, Russia's ambassador to Washington said Friday, July 20, after a report that the Kremlin leader suggested a referendum in conflict-ridden Eastern Ukraine
"This problem was discussed , concrete proposals Anatoly Antonov said, referring to the conflict of four years.
He refused to provide details at the meeting of experts and journalists in Moscow.
Antonov spoke after Bloomberg reported on Thursday At the Helsinki summit, Putin called for holding a referendum with the help of the international community in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and L ugansk in Ukraine, which Russia-backed separatists control. [19659006062006-MBloombergadéclaréqueMTrumpavaitdemandéàMPoutinedenepaspublierl'idéeduréférendumaprèslesommetdelundipourdonnerauchefdesEtats-Unisletempsdeleprendreenconsidération[19659010]. had made secret deals with Trump at the top that sparked a political storm in the United States.
"The Russian side made several very serious proposals, some of which were announced by Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) at the press conference," Antonov said.
"There was no secret agreement," he added. "There have been discussions on the Syrian issue, on the Ukraine, concrete orders have been given to experts to work in this area."
After a popular Western-backed uprising in Kiev in 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and moved to support a separatist insurgency in the Russian-speaking eastern regions of Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk. (READ: The actions of Russia in Ukraine "obstacle" to the improvement of relations – United States)
Moscow makes Crimea part of Russia after a hastily organized referendum whose results have been rejected by the international community.
US State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, tweeted: "To be clear: the administration does not plan to support a referendum in Ukraine – a" referendum "n & rsquo; Would have no legitimacy We continue to support the #Minsk agreements to resolve the conflict in # Donbas #ukraine @StateDept. "
The Ukrainian conflict, today half-forgotten by the West in the middle from other crises and its own divisions, has made more than 10,000 deaths and almost daily clashes between pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces. ] France and Germany helped negotiate the so-called Minsk agreements in 2015, but they are poorly observed and the peace process is essentially halted.
Referendum "under threat"
The spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said: "If the international community and first and foremost the United States could not not to make sure that Kiev respects the Minsk agreements, other options "
Antonov accused the Ukrainian authorities of not having respected the agreements.
" We should ask a question: Minsk is it If all countries support the Minsk agreements, then they must be respected. "
The Ukrainian authorities immediately rejected the proposal."
"We strongly reject this bizarre idea of holding referendums in occupied territories "Oleksii Makeiev, head of the political department at the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Twitter
A senior legislator and peace negotiator, Iryna Gerashchenko, said that ten a vote "under the threat of a rifle" was unfathomable.
across the border to support separatist forces, despite evidence to the contrary – Rappler.com
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