At the Minsk meeting on Wednesday, the participants of the Contact Group
discussed the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine.
MINSK, February 1. /TASS/. Participants of the Contact Group at the meeting in Minsk on Wednesday agreed on a statement with the call for ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, envoy of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic to the talks Vladislav Deinego said.
"The
group worked on the draft aimed at stabilizing the situation in Donbass and
finally agreed on a text of statement with the call to stop fire that was
announced by coordinator (of the OSCE in the Contact Group) Martin Sajdik after
the meeting," Deinego was quoted by the LuganskInformCenter as saying.
At the Minsk meeting on Wednesday, the participants of the Contact Group discussed the escalation of violence in Donbass and the serious humanitarian situation in the conflict zone.
Over the past days, the situation near the line separating the areas
controlled by the Kiev government and the self-proclaimed republics of eastern
Ukraine has deteriorated. The shellings conducted by the Ukrainian forces have
resulted in casualties among the civilians. Many houses and infrastructure
facilities were damaged.
The UN Security Council expressed grave concern over the "dangerous
deterioration" of the situation in eastern Ukraine and its severe impact
on the local civilian population and called for an immediate return to
ceasefire. The UNSC members condemned the use of weapons banned under the
February 2015 Minsk peace deal.
Safe access to OSCE monitors
The Contact Group has demanded safe access for OSCE monitors to the
conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE’s special representative in the
group, Martin Sajdik, said after Wednesday’s meeting.
Sajdik said "the access for members of the OSCE Special Monitoring
Mission should be safe and reliable." He also called to "provide assistance
to humanitarian efforts on restoring water and energy supply and also the
heating, including carrying out repair and restoration works at the
infrastructure facilities."
Withdrawal of weapons and military
hardware
Participants of the Contact Group on settlement in Donbass agreed to withdraw weapons and military hardware to the storage facilities by Sunday, according to Sajdik.
"The Trilateral Contact Group jointly with the representatives of
certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine (DPR and LPR) calls
to withdraw weapons banned under the Minsk agreements" from the area of
the Donetsk airport, Avdeyevka and Yasinovataya and the entire contact line,
Sajdik said.
Restoration of infrastructure
The Contact Group for a settlement in the east of Ukraine has called for
fast restoration of ruined infrastructures in Donbass, Sajdik said.
"We are for providing assistance to humanitarian efforts to restore
water and power supply, and also heating and for repair works on all
infrastructures," he said.
Source: ITAR-TASS 02-02-2017
