Donetsk, Nov 6 - DAN. Ukraine has turned down the Donbass Republics’ proposal to relaunch the implementation of the framework agreement on the disengagement of forces and hardware in Donbas, Donetsk People’s Republic envoy to the Minsk talks, acting DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said after the Contract Group meeting on Tuesday.

“The Republics’ representatives brought forward the proposal that the Contact Group makes a statement urging the parties to eliminate all the violations recorded by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission thereby relaunching its implementation, but regrettably, no response came from the OSCE SMM leadership as the Ukrainian delegation rejected the Republics’ proposal,” Nikonorova said.

The Contact Group participants - the DPR, the LPR, Ukraine, Russia and OSCE signed the framework agreement on disengagement of forces in late September 2016. The document set three disengagement areas: Petrovskoye in the DPR and Stanitsa Luganskaya and Zolotoye in the LPR. Each withdrawal area measures at least 2 kilometres wide and 2 kilometres deep. The disengagement was only completed in the Petrovskoye and Zolotoye areas. Kiev repeatedly failed to pull back its forces in Stanitsa Luganskaya.

In May 2018, DPR representatives said that Kiev had wrecked the agreement on the disengagement of forces in Petrovskoye. The OSCE SMM recorded violations by Kiev forces.*jk