EU 'strongly' condemns kindergarten attack in eastern Ukraine

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) – The European Union on Thursday "strongly" condemned an attack on a kindergarten in the Stanytsia Luhanska settlement under the Ukrainian government's control.

"Such indiscriminate shelling of civilian infrastructures is totally unacceptable and represents a clear violation of the cease-fire and the Minsk agreements," EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

Calling for an immediate end to the ongoing escalation, Borrell said: "As the European Union, we stand united in our unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders."

"The European Union fully supports the work of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Special Monitoring Mission and calls for its unrestrained access to the whole territory of Ukraine, in line with its mandate."

The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists on Thursday blamed each other for cease-fire violations along the line of contact in the eastern Donbas region.

The Ukrainian General Staff released pictures of a bombed-out kindergarten on its social media account, claiming that pro-Russian separatist fighters bombed the Stanytsia Luhanska settlement under the Kyiv government's control.

Russia, according to Ukrainian officials and NATO, has recently amassed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, prompting fears that the Kremlin could be planning a military offensive against its former Soviet neighbor.

Denying that it is preparing to invade, Moscow has accused Western countries of undermining Russia's security through NATO's expansion toward its borders.

Russia also issued a list of security demands to the West, including a rollback of troop deployments from some ex-Soviet states and guarantees that some of those states would not join NATO.

In a written response to the demands, Washington said it is committed to upholding NATO's "open-door policy," while NATO also conveyed the alliance's reply "in parallel with the United States."