Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says Russia is not interested in the annexation of Donbas, but it wants to weaken and destabilize Ukraine.
Read alsoKlimkin-Lavrov meeting in Munich yields no results"Russia has not come to Crimea to protect the rights and freedoms of the people – they are violated everywhere Russia is present, and most brutally against the Crimean Tatars," he said during the panel discussion "Defence Cooperation in the EU and NATO: More European, More Connected, More Capable?" on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 16.
"Nor is Russia interested in incorporation of Donbas – this area has come under military assault of Kremlin to weaken and destabilize Ukraine," Poroshenko added.
UNIAN memo. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia. On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin. The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced. Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began.
