The President stressed in his annual press conference that the parliament of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada) was presented with the bill on the foundations of state policy for the transition period, in which the Minsk agreements do not appear.

He stated that instead of the intention to extend amnesty to the People’s Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, the bill provides for its prohibition, and instead of elections, it introduces a proposal of a military administration for those territories.

Ukraine may be preparing a new military operation against Donbass, and Western countries are asking Russia in advance not to interfere in the coming conflict, the head of state said to the nearly 500 journalists present in the press conference.

In his opinion, emboldened by the new weapons systems brought in by the West, the Ukrainian radicals can be provoked to foment a confrontation in the east of the country and attempt to return the Russian Republic of Crimea to Kiev.

Putin also denounced the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, which are expelling Russians and Russian-speaking residents from the territories where they lived all their lives, and also rejected the decision of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) to approve a bill on the Ukrainian as state language, restricting the use of the Russian language, which has been historically the second official language spoken in the country.

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