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© RIA Novosti. Stringer
The Embassy of the Russian Federation called counterproductive the decision of the canadian authorities to extend for another two years the mandate of the mission military trainers to Ukraine.
“The government’s decision to extend Canada’s military mission in Ukraine, is counterproductive and does not contribute to the political process in Ukraine, including direct dialogue between Kiev and Donbas, as prescribed by the Minsk agreements,” – said in comments press Secretary of the Russian Embassy to Canada Kirill Kalinin, published in the official account of the office on Twitter.
The statement also stressed that Ottawa must “exert pressure” on Kiev the fact that Ukraine has been implementing the Minsk agreements, which are designed to resolve the conflict in the Donbass peacefully and not to engage in “military adventures”.
“The canadian government and the people of Canada must decide whether it will serve the military presence abroad of their national interests and to what extent. We have always publicly expressed their opposition to the expansion of the canadian military mission in Ukraine and the recent deployment of NATO to Russia’s borders (referring to the creation of battalions of the Alliance in the Baltic States and Poland – approx. TASS),” – said TASS Kirill Kalinin. He added that the decision of Ottawa “regrettable”, as it will negatively affect the political settlement of the conflict in the East of Ukraine.
On Monday the Minister of national defence harjit Singh Sajjan said that Canada will extend for another two years the mandate of the mission military trainers to Ukraine until March 2019.