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The eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic will no longer make attempts to speak with Kiev on the subject of a ceasefire, DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko said Friday, Sputnik News reported.

“There will no longer be any attempts to speak about a ceasefire from our side. We will now see how Kiev reacts. Kiev doesn’t currently understand that we can advance in three directions simultaneously,” Zakharchenko said.

Zakharchenko added that while the DPR would not go for a reconciliation with Kiev, the promised prisoner swaps between the parties would still be carried out, adding that DPR captives should be “pulled out.”

In September 2014, the sides achieved a ceasefire deal in Minsk. However, they failed to adhere to it and repeatedly accused each other of multiple violations.

Despite international efforts to end the armed conflict, Kiev started a large military operation at the Donetsk airport on Sunday and intensified the shelling of Donetsk.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin called Kiev’s way of handling the conflict a “strategic mistake” and stressed that such an approach might likely trigger irreversible consequences for Ukrainian statehood.