All activities have been completed at the disengagement area 3 near Petrovskoye — DPR Representative Office to the JCCC

Today, on December 5, on the basis of the agreements reached by the Trilateral Contact Group as part of the resumption of the parties’ commitments for the implementation of the Framework Decision, the chief of the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC and negotiation process sent the OSCE SMM an official notification of the completion of all the activities in accordance with the approved implementation roadmap for eliminating violations at the disengagement area 3 near Petrovskoe, the official website of the Representative Office reports.

The notification says that as of December 5 2019, all forces and equipment of the DPR People’s Militia have been withdrawn from the disengagement area, the necessary demining activities have been carried out, including the work on clearing the area of explosive hazards and unexploded ordnance, also, all fortifications and other military facilities of the DPR have been dismantled.

In particular, during the first stage of the activates, from November 9 to 11, 14 members of the DPR People’s Militia personnel, an Utyos NSV machinegun and an AGS have been withdrawn from the area.

From November 13 to December 4, sappers of the DPR Emergencies Ministry surveyed an area of 13,400 m² (1.34 ha) of the site, as a result of which they found fifty-five TM-62 mines, two RPG-7 grenades, two VOG-17 grenades, four TM-62 mine fuses, nine 12.7 mm cartridges. We draw attention to the fact that the remaining minefield obstacles are marked as mine-hazardous areas due to the inaccessibility of their demining.

Also, the dismantlement of fortifications and other military facilities in the disengagement area has been completed in full, 100 meters of trenches (of which 10 within the area and 90 along), two fire nests have been dismantled as well.

All the activities agreed upon and approved by the Contact Group were carried out with the participation and coordination of the DPR Representative Office the JCCC. The process of rectifying the violations in the previously disengaged areas will be deemed to have taken place after the Mission verifies the activities carried out by the parties, which is scheduled to take place on December 6 according to the implementation roadmap, and after the Mission publishes a corresponding report.

However, it is a matter of concern that the Ukrainian party to the JCCC asked to extend the security guarantees until January 5, 2020 to continue the activities provided for by the implementation roadmap. According to it, they should have been completed in full on December 5, 2019. We have information that the Ukrainian side has not finished yet demining activities within the disengagement area, and the dismantlement of all fortifications and other military facilities also remains incomplete.

We remind that in accordance with the agreements reached by the Trilateral Contact Group, all the activities provided for by the implementation roadmap are to be carried out synchronously, in a mirror-like manner and are to be completed on the expiry of 30 days. Any deviations from the roadmap should be registered by the OSCE SMM and documented in relevant reports. We regard such actions by Ukraine as a deliberate delaying of the fulfilment of the agreements on the elimination of violations in the previously disengagement areas, which leads to the disruption of the agreed deadlines, which in turn sets a precedent for an obstruction of future agreements.