PRESS RELEASE
Ukrainian Cease Fire Effort Moving Forward
Sept. 23, 2016 (EIRNS)—The cease fire effort in Syria may be dead, but in Ukraine it seems to be moving forward. After the agreement announced on Sept. 21 on the withdrawal of weapons from three settlements along the line of contact in the Donbass region of southeastern Ukraine, the Trilateral Contact Group of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be discussing withdrawal from four more settlements, reports Tass.
"The main goal is to ensure the weapons withdrawal along the whole line of contact. The work in three areas is starting today, another four areas have been determined already, on October 5 the details of the disengagement in these areas and the other areas along the line of contact, will be discussed,"
Ukraine’s representative in the Contact Group Yevgeny Marchuk said, yesterday.
"The withdrawal schedule comes with the agreement, containing a 13-day deadline for its implementation. I think that the forces’ disengagement is sure to begin this week,"
Marchuk said.
"If this step proves to be a success, then about a dozen or more areas will be determined to gradually complete the withdrawal process along the whole line of contact, which is 426 kilometers long,"
Marchuk added.
Alexander Hug, the deputy chief of the OSCE mission, declared the missions’ readiness to monitor the withdrawal.
"We’re welcoming the signing of the agreements on disengagement in three sectors The OSCE’s SMM [Special Monitoring Mission] will monitor compliance and conduct verification of the agreements on both sides of the line of demarcation,"
he said in Kiev earlier today. He stressed that the monitoring mission has the resources and backing from the OSCE to carry out its mission, but that both sides must take responsibility to ensure that the monitors have access to all of the relevant areas on both sides of the line of contact.
