According to DPR’s representative in the Contact Group,
statements saying the Normandy Four, including Russia, have allegedly given
consent to arming the OSCE SMM in Ukraine are false.
MINSK, June 1 /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic are against the deployment of any military contingents in their territories, including the OSCE police mission, Viktoria Talakina, the press secretary of the DPR representative in the Contact Group for the Ukraine settlement, said after the Contact Group’s meeting in Minsk on Wednesday.
"The stances of the DPR and LPR concerning this matter remain unchanged. We do not want to see any military contingents deployed in the territories of the people’s republics," Talakina wrote on her page in Facebook.
"The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission is a civil
rather than a military organization, which is supposed to control and verify
the implementation of the [Minsk} Accords under the Package of Measures
[Minsk-2]. The task of law enforcers is to guard law and order," Talakina
said.
Denis Pushilin, DPR’s representative in the Contact
Group, told the Contact Group’s meeting on Wednesday that Ukrainian
politicians’ statements that the Normandy Four countries, including Russia, had
allegedly given consent to arming the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in
Ukraine were false.
Ukraine’s representative in the political working group
for the Ukraine settlement was close to disrupting its work after refusing to
discuss some items on the group’s agenda, Viktoria Talakina, the press
secretary of the special representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s
Republic in the Contact Group for the settlement in Eastern Ukraine, said after
the group’s meeting in Minsk on Wednesday.
"Ukraine was close to derailing the political
group’s work for the second time. Another representative of the Ukrainian side
said he was not authorized to discuss some items on the agenda," Talakina
wrote in Facebook. She described such an attitude to the negotiations as
outrageous.
According to Talakina, Ukraine has not submitted a
single document ever since the political group started its work. By comparison,
the representatives of the self-proclaimed republics have drawn up and
presented three drafts of amendments to Ukraine’s constitution; two draft laws
on elections and two drafts of a road map for the conflict’s peaceful
settlement. "Russia also submitted a roadmap draft. The group’s OSCE
coordinator has submitted more than 10 drafts," Talakina said.
"A logical conclusion comes to mind: who is
genuinely interested in the conflict’s peaceful settlement and who is
not?" Talakina concluded.
The Contact Group’s working groups for security,
politics, humanitarian and economic issues met in Minsk on Wednesday.
Martin Sajdik, the Special Representative of the OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group for the
Ukraine settlement, has voiced concern with increased incidents of violation of
the ceasefire regime and the growing number of casualties in Donbass and has
called for bringing all ceasefire breakers to justice.
"The meetings passed against the background of
numerous violations of the ceasefire regime and growing military and civilian
casualties. I am particularly concerned with civilian casualties, including
attacks on unarmed observers," Sajdik said.
"I demand bringing all the violators to justice and
calling froe guaranteeing immediate and unrestricted assess of the Special
Monitoring Mission in the entire territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk
regions," the OSCE special representative said.
According to him, participants in the security working
group discussed possible cessation of military hostilities on the whole and
ways of improving the work of the Joint Control and Coordination Center at a
meeting on Wednesday.
"The group’s participants worked over concrete
options for disengaging forces and creating certain buffer security zones along
the entire line of contact," Sajdik said.
Ukrainian army units have shelled the areas adjacent to
the line of contact in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) 211
times over the past 24 hours, the DPR operational command said on Wednesday.
The Contact Group for settlement in Eastern Ukraine
agreed to introduce a new "silence regime" as of midnight on April 30
at a meeting in Minsk on April 29. But the sides in the Ukraine conflict
continue accusing each other of truce violations.
Source: ITAR-TASS 02-06-2016
