PRESS RELEASE

---

Tensions Approaching Boiling Point in Ukraine

Aug. 6, 2016 (EIRNS)—Is renewed full-scale warfare about to break out in the Donbas region of Ukraine? This morning’s assassination attempt, by means of a bomb attack on his car, on Igor Plotnitsky, the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, is an indication that tensions are significantly escalating. The chairman of the republic’s Council of Ministers, Sergei Kozlov, said that Plotnitsky’s injuries are not life-threatening, but that the L.P.R. authorities consider the attempt a terrorist attack. Sputnik reports that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has sent a team to examine the site of the attack and intends to prepare a report on it.

Denis Pushilin, negotiator for the Donetsk People’s Republic, the second of the two breakaway republics, warns that renewed warfare is a real possibility if the Kiev regime doesn’t implement its responsibilities under the Minsk agreements. "The situation worsens with each day," Pushilin told Izvestia, reports Newsweek.

"There has been no progress to regulate the conflict politically since the last negotiations. The situation remains tense and at any moment it can heat up and escalate into full-fledged fighting."

He added that

"If Ukraine does not meet at least the first three points [of the ceasefire] in Donbas, open fighting will be renewed very soon."