A day after top diplomats met in Geneva and announced a deal designed to “de-escalate tensions” in Ukraine, it appears that the actual Ukrainian separatists who have defiantly occupied government buildings in numerous cities in the east do not feel bound by the agreement made without their consent.
Though the agreement announced Thursday by the U.S., Russia, the EU, and the foreign minister of the new Ukraine government in Kiev called for those behind the barricades to lay down their arms and return home, there was little evidence to suggest that this was happening.
According to the Guardian:
As Reuters notes, enacting the deal brokered in Geneva is easier said than done, “because of the deep mistrust between the pro-Russian groups and the Western-backed government in Kiev.” Violent clashes between separatists and militants loyal to Kiev, the news agency reminds readers, have already seen several people killed this week.
Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader of a group that seized government buildings in Donetsk nearly two weeks ago, told journalists that he and his followers have no intention to leave their fortifications until the Kiev government steps down or an agreeable referendum on independence is granted.
Russia “did not sign anything for us {in Geneva],” said Mr. Pushilin, according to the New York Times.
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