Yesterday, the official website of the President of Ukraine published the information to indicate that Ukrainian representatives to the Minsk talks will work to carry forward additional measures to ensure a comprehensive ceasefire. In this regard, DPR Foreign Affairs Minister Natalia Nikonorova made an official statement today, on January 16.
“It should be reminded that the list of additional measures was first proposed by the OSCE SMM in August 2017 and was subsequently supplemented on the basis of proposals made by representatives of the Republics, and included, inter alia, the need to publish ceasefire orders, conduct proceedings and take disciplinary measures against violators. The Republics systematically complied with all the necessary requirements, while the Ukrainian party continued to shell our territories, including with heavy weapons, with impunity.
Thus, from July 21, since the entry into force of the permanent ceasefire, reinforced by a package of additional measures to enhance and control the ceasefire, the AFU have fired at the DPR territory 2,118 times, as a result of which 23 civilians have been wounded, 344 residential buildings and 37 infrastructure facilities have been destroyed and damaged. We haven’t seen the Ukrainian party launch proceedings into any of these facts, the perpetrators have not been punished for any violation.
In the statement on the permanent ceasefire, which was agreed upon in July 2019, the mechanism for ensuring a ceasefire on the basis of additional measures was stated in quite a distinct and identifiable manner. The armed formations of Ukraine can only follow the items of the agreed additional measures, but this does not happen, we do not see any actual steps towards peace.
For over two years, representatives of the Republics have insisted on initialing the official document on additional measures, including at the most recent meeting in December 2019. At the upcoming meeting, we intend to again raise the issue of providing the package of additional measures with a legal status through signature by the parties, and we are hopeful that this will finally happen. We have witnessed time and again that even the signed documents constitute no 100% guarantee that the Ukrainian party will implement the commitments made. We believe that the legal status of an initialed document will allow for application of sanction mechanisms in the event of violation of additional measures and the commission of war crimes, due to which civilians and their houses are affected.
We also consider that, instead of proposing existing and agreed mechanisms, it would be most productive for Mr. Zelensky to focus on seeking opportunities for a phased disengagement of forces and assets along the entire contact line, which he declared as impossible after the meeting of the Normandy Four countries’ leaders. Phased disengagement can indeed be a significant step towards peace,” Natalia Nikonorova said.