MOSCOW, May 2 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Friday that Kiev had launched a "punitive operation" in south-east Ukraine, destroying the final hope of keeping alive an accord intended to defuse the Ukraine crisis, Russian news agencies reported.
They quoted spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin had sent a representative to the area for talks about freeing captured Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe observers but that the Kremlin had not been in contact with him since the operation began. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Nigel Stephenson)
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