Representatives of the republics called on Ukraine to comply with the indefinite ceasefire

During the Contact Group talks, the republics proposed approving and enshrining additional measures to enhance and monitor the indefinite ceasefire, which has been in force since July 21, 2019. DPR Plenipotentiary Representative and Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova commented on the results of the security subgroup’s meeting.

“We appreciate that the working subgroup manage to make some progress in agreeing on almost half of the draft Supplement to the Framework Decision item by item. We hope that the second half will be agreed on at the next meeting.

In our opinion, the issue of agreeing on and approving additional measures for monitoring the ceasefire in force is most topical. In this context, it would be quite advisably to agree on and sign the very list of such monitoring measures, not the statement of the Contact Group, which has already been made on July 21, 2019, when the indefinite ceasefire came into force.

Experience proves that verbal statements do not lead to the desired results. Therefore, if we had signed today the package of measures whose fulfillment would have ensured compliance with the indefinite ceasefire, that would have been the most significant achievement in terms of security.

To that end, we proposed discussing item by item and signing a corresponding document as a commitment of the parties, and insisted that it be made public so that all the implementers and the world public know what is prohibited or necessary to do in various situations to avoid ceasefire violations.

However, the Ukrainian delegation, instead of real work to approve additional measures, proposed today to “turn on” the ceasefire, thus indirectly confirming the “turning off” of the ceasefire on its part, despite the fact that no one had declared the indefinite truce to be over. In this regard, we called on representatives of official Kiev to urgently “turn it on”, as we again have wounded and killed civilians,” Nikonorova stressed.

As for the issue of demining, the parties agreed to send maps with clear coordinates for carrying out demining until June 30 so that the working subgroup will be able to continue to work in this direction and reach a practical level.