The working subgroup on security held a scheduled meeting via videoconferencing on June 9. According to the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC and negotiation process, the agenda included ceasefire observance issues and additional measures for its monitoring, coordination of three new areas for disengagement, a supplement to the Framework Decision, as well as demining activities.
For the first item on the agenda, the official representative of the Republic informed that, according to the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC, three civilians suffered injuries of varying degrees of severity, 18 houses and three infrastructure facilities were damaged by AFU fire between 26 May and 8 June.
Ukraine engaged the Republic 24 times, including with artillery and mortars:
— 120 mm mortars were used four times, 27 shells fired;
— 82mm mortars were used eight times, 47 shells fired.
Hot spots were suburbs of Gorlovka and the south of the Republic, as well as Staromikhaylovka, Donetsk (the village of Trudovskaya Mine, the village of Oktyabrskaya Mine, the Volvo Center) and Dokuchayevsk.
According to the OSCE SMM, monitors spotted weapons and equipment that the AFU deployed in violation of disengagement lines, in the security zone and outside the storage sites during the mentioned period.
Official representative of the Republic Alexey Nikonorov emphasized that Ukraine does not comply yet with the ceasefire. And this is happening while the issue of additional measures for strengthening and monitoring the existing ceasefire is totally stagnating.
“It is too early to talk about de-escalation, since the armed forces of Ukraine keep shooting at civilians and civilian infrastructure facilities. The Ukrainian party refuses to approve the key provisions of additional measures for ceasefire stabilization by forcing other dates for ceasefire. We shall not accept such a stance. The current truce agreed on 21 July, 2019, has been defined as indefinite,” Nikonorov said.
The participants again did not agree on new areas for disengagement. Ukraine delays discussion on this issue by all means and delays the negotiation process by promising to send some new proposals and coordinates.
“At each previous meeting we discussed specific promising areas for disengagement that the parties suggested. To reach a consensus, we only need to decide on three compromise options that suit both us and the Ukrainian party. However, the representatives of Kiev claimed that they had prepared new proposals, which they did not consider it necessary to submit for the participants’ consideration before the video conference for some reason, so the discussion has been again rescheduled for the next meeting.
In addition, the issue of agreeing on a supplement to the Framework Decision, which would include all the issues that had been overlooked earlier, is of great concern. For the first time in a long period, the members of the working subgroup were able to start discussing the draft document item by item. The negotiation process has been jump-started, but there is a great deal of work to be done,” Alexey Nikonorov summed up.
In conclusion, the DPR representative noted that they had managed to discuss almost all items on the agenda today, with the exception of demining activities.