Unfortunately, no meaningful progress has been made during the Contact Group’s meeting on any of the agenda items related to security issues, DPR plenipotentiary and Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova stated.
“Reducing the escalation at the line of contact till it is completely eliminated, as well as the terms of the Framework Decision, should be the main criterion for coordinating new areas. However, the Ukrainian party continues to politicize this process, despite the fact that the real areas, to which no one has objections, have long been on the table and they fully meet the terms of the Framework Decision. Such a stance of Ukraine suggests that Kiev officials have no political will to address this important issue,” Natalya Nikonorova told.
As for the discussion on violations of the current permanent ceasefire, Natalya Nikonorova focused on the tragic consequences of such violations, which claimed the life of a 25-year-old girl and led to the wounding of two civilians.
Natalya Nikonorova also asked all the participants for assistance in providing security guarantees for repair works in the grey zone in the area of Yelenovka, where for several months now it has not been possible to fix the breakage in the water supply network of the Yelenovka booster pumping plant due to the fact that the Ukrainian party to the JCCC does not provide the necessary security guarantees, because of which the civilian population suffers.
With regard to the harmonization of the wording of the draft Supplement to the Framework Decision on withdrawal of forces and weapons, it has been agreed that in order to speed up the process the OSCE coordinator will submit a consolidated version for the parties’ consideration by the next meeting of the working subgroup on security issues. It will feature all the concurrent items and a comparative table will present all discrepancies.
“We hope that such a consolidated version drawn up by the OSCE on the basis of existing proposals will help to intensify the process of approving the wording of the draft and achieve a reasonable compromise solution in the near future, along with approving new areas,” the plenipotentiary noted.
OSCE coordinators also reported to the meeting participants on the work of the subgroups for economic and humanitarian issues.
As for the agenda of the economic subgroup, they reviewed its main items, and focused especially on the problems in the work of Voda Donbassa company, Ukraine’s arrears on social obligations and wages.
As for the POW swap, the most important issue on the agenda of the working group for humanitarian issues, the negotiators instructed that the preparations for the next exchange be intensified and problematic aspects pending after the past exchanges be addressed.