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| - Moscow and Kiev on Tuesday blamed each other for a rise in violence between government forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has undermined a ceasefire brokered last year. While the Kremlin on Tuesday blamed Kiev for failing to implement peace agreements, Ukraine's army chief accused Moscow of building up its military presence along the Ukrainian border. "With the Normandy format, things are bad," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty i Fakty published on Tuesday. France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia together comprise the Normandy format of countries which have sought to resolve the conflict. In 2015, they agreed the Minsk accords to de-escalate the fighting. "It can be said that under President Zelensky, it hasn't been possible to make any progress in the implementation of both the Minsk package of measures and the subsequent agreements that were reached in Paris," Peskov added. "Now we're seeing an escalation in tensions along the frontline," Peskov said. "Modest achievements that were made earlier are being negated." The war broke out in 2014 when Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula following a bloody uprising that ousted Ukraine's Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last July brokered the a ceasefire that had brought relative calm until an increase in fighting earlier this year. At least 16 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed since fighting escalated in mid-February and Kiev has accused Moscow and separatists of using banned military hardware. Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday blamed Moscow for the latest escalation in the conflict, calling on Russia to "immediately cease hostilities" and "pull back its army" from Ukraine. "Today's actions by Russia are in fact aimed at destroying all efforts to end the conflict," it said in a statement adopted during a special session. Speaking to lawmakers, Commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces Ruslan Khomchak denounced the "threat to the military security" of Ukraine by the Russian army. He accused Moscow of accumulating its troops along the Ukrainian border, as well as in annexed Crimea. Khomchak said that some 28,000 separatist fighters and "more than 2,000 Russian military instructors and advisers" are being currently stationed in eastern Ukraine. Zelensky was elected in 2019 on promises to end the conflict, but critics say that the shaky ceasefire is his only tangible achievement. Talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris in December 2019 brought the sides no closer to a lasting settlement. Russia denies sending troops and arms to support the separatists. The fighting has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014, according to the United Nations. jbr-dg/acl/jj
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