Petrovskoye, Nov 19 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic engineers eliminated the mine barriers in the DPR responsibility area in the Petrovskoye-Bogdanovka security zone, head of the DPR Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination Ruslan Yakubov said on Tuesday.
“The timeframe between November 13 and November 19 was allocated for demining and preparations for the dismantling of fortifications. Today is the deadline,” Yakubov said. “The DPR Emergencies Ministry task force is completing this phase. The next step is to carry out engineer reconnaissance, cleanup and unexploded ordnance disposal.”
Over seven days, the DPR engineers demined some 3,000 metres of territory retrieving anti-tank and personnel mines, he added.
If the conflicting parties keep to simultaneous action, they have to dismantle their fortifications, military installations, passive obstacles etc. in the next phase of the process, due to be completed on December 4.
The Petrovskoye village is located on the contact line some 40 kilometres south of Donetsk. Bogdanovka-Petrovskoye is one of the three pilot disengagement areas in Donbass, in accordance with the Framework Agreement signed by the Contact Group participants in Minsk in September 2016. The conflicting parties disengaged back in October 2016, but later on, Ukrainian troops returned to their positions.*jk