Following the meeting in Minsk, Bogdan Bondar, a Ukrainian representative to the working group for security issues, who got the data on the two disengagement areas mixed up, made a confusing statement on the alleged need to observe a seven-day ceasefire regime in the disengagement area near Petrovskoye in order to resume the withdrawal, citing some “possible” dates.
“However, we have repeatedly stated that this condition is not necessary and has not been agreed upon at the talks in Minsk. Thus, Ukraine’s obsession with this condition is nothing but an attempt to postpone the elimination of its own violations at the Petrovskoye-Bogdanovka disengagement area as long as possible.
In this connection, we declare that a seven-day ceasefire regime demanded by Mr. Bondar is not an arrangement agreed upon by all the parties but yet another lapse of the Ukrainian side and wishful thinking,” stressed Aleksey Nikonorov, a DPR official representative to the Contact Group’s subgroup for security issues in Minsk.