President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council on Friday, said that responsibility for the worsening situation in eastern Ukraine lies with those who give “criminal orders” to use artillery and aviation against populated areas, Interfax reports .

Putin said that in the Donbass, “artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, and aviation” are being used “indiscriminately, right in densely populated areas.” “And all this is happening to the accompaniment of propaganda slogans about the desire for peace and the search for those responsible,” said the head of state.

According to him, the only way to resolve such conflicts is through peaceful negotiations and “means of a political nature.”

“We often hear, including from today’s official Kyiv, that this country is committed to precisely these methods of resolving issues, but in practice everything happens completely differently. I hope that common sense will triumph in the end,” Putin said.

He reminded members of the Security Council that on January 16 he sent a letter to President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko (No. 1284 in the global ranking of billionaires according to Forbes, net worth $1.3 billion) with a proposal to withdraw troops and heavy equipment along the lines consistent with the agreements in Minsk of September 19, 2014 of the year. According to him, he proposed withdrawing artillery and multiple launch rocket systems “to such a distance from which it would be impossible to defeat populated areas.”

“Not only did we not receive any clear response to our proposal, but we also saw the opposite action, namely, the Kyiv authorities issued an official order to begin large-scale military operations along almost the entire perimeter of contact between the warring parties,” Putin said.

At the meeting, members of the Security Council observed a minute of silence in memory of those killed at a traffic stop in Donetsk on January 22.

Putin named those responsible for the aggravation of the situation in Donbass