Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the US basically supported the use of Bayraktar drones in Ukraine, although it is banned under the Minsk agreements, while Europe's reaction was noncommittal.
Earlier this month, the Ukrainian General Staff said that Kiev began using the Bayraktar strike drone in the eastern region of Donbas. Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff Serhiy Shaptala said that Kiev was planning to purchase more Turkish-made drones.
"This is aviation ... which is strictly forbidden by the Minsk agreements and subsequent agreements. But nobody is reacting to that. The US practically supported that. Europe said something vague about that, but the US actually backed it," Putin told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
Russia itself has often been accused of failing to uphold the Minsk agreements, although its partners within the so-called Normandy Four format, which includes Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine, have not been able to explain how Moscow broke the deal, Putin said.
"When we ask out partners, including our Normandy Four partners, what it is exactly that Russia is not doing under the Minsk agreements and what they think Russia should be doing under the Minsk agreements, there's no answer. They literally [say], we cannot formulate. I'm not joking. That's how the conversation goes," Putin said.
Nevertheless, the Normandy four are discussing a possible meeting, the Russian president said.
"I think we have no other mechanisms and no matter how hard, how difficult it is, to solve this problem, we have to use this mechanism to be able to at least come closer to solving the problems we are talking about," Putin said.
Earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly called on their Russian colleagues, Sergey Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu, at a meeting in Paris to agree to hold a Normandy Four ministerial meeting and to "reinvest in negotiations within the Normandy format." (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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