Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who observed the drills, said that “the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not be the ones who start an offensive” and stressed that the OSCE mission had confirmed Ukraine’s strict implementation of Minsk ceasefire agreements, Ukraine Today reports. 

Since the signing of a ceasefire deal in February, numerous violations of the ceasefire by Russia-backed militants have been reported. Earlier, a BBC journalist personally witnessed the shelling of Ukrainian positions with heavy weapons near the strategic port city of Mariupol.

Meanwhile, Russia has been holding aggressive military drills in close proximity to the Ukrainian border.

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