Donetsk, Dec 20 – DAN. The members of the Contact Group on Donbass conflict peaceful settlement have agreed to the ceasefire in effect since midnight December 23, 2017 (Kiev time zone), said DPR envoy to the negotiations Denis Pushilin’s press secretary Viktoria Talakina.
"The main point of the agenda of this year's Contact Group final meeting was the security situation as the New Year and Christmas holidays are approaching. Considering the growing number of shelling episodes – yesterday only the SMM OSCE recorded 6,500 violations, considering the necessity to provide a durable ceasefire, the DPR has confirmed its commitment to silencing guns on midnight December 23, 2017," she said.
DPR emphasized the importance to issue appropriate orders providing for disciplinary actions against offenders.
Earlier Russia's permanent representative at the Minsk talks Boris Gryzlov said that the members of the Contact Group, guided by previously achieved agreements, had confirmed confirmed its commitment to a comprehensive, durable and indefinite ceasefire in effect since midnight December 23, 2017.
Currently DPR Operations Command and DPR officers in the JCCC asses the security situation in Donbass as unstable. Only over the past 24 hours, Kiev forces violated the ceasefire 41 times, expending almost 1,000 rounds. On the latest occasion, the Contact Group agreed to a ceasefire in place since August 2017. *ot