A Ukrainian security adviser says there is no point in holding new peace talks with pro-Russian separatists until Kyiv is satisfied that the rebels holding territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are adhering to a truce deal signed on September 5 in Minsk.
Markian Lubkivskiy, an adviser to the chairman of Ukraine's Security Service, said on 1+1 television on November 13 that "there will be no 'Minsk-2', as we have 'Minsk-1' agreements which Ukraine is implementing and the terrorists are not."
A Ukrainian Foreign Ministry representative, Dmytro Kuleba, said in the same televised program that Kyiv will continue talks but only on implementation of existing agreements.
Hundreds of combatants and civilians have been killed since the September 5 cease-fire, with each side blaming the other.
Kyiv says that November 2 elections in the rebel-held region violated the truce deal, which also included other steps toward peace and was signed by Russia.
Russia denies allegations from Kyiv and the West that it has sent troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine, despite sightings of unmarked convoys on rebel-held territory in recent days.
