Donetsk, Mar 29 – DAN. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has distorted the essence of Additional Measures to Strengthen the Ceasefire in Donbass, adopted on July 22, 2020, said the DPR Minister of Foreign Affairs representing the Republic in the Contact Group Natalia Nikonorova.
“We are bewilder that Kiev, even in the simplest and non-cumbersome matters, seeks to distort and replace the essence of the agreements reached,” Nikonorova said.
On March 19 this year, the list of measures (a package of Additional Measures to Control the Ceasefire) was just removed from the website of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. On March 27 it was published again, but this time its even more twisted version: two measures were withdrawn, and the content of one of the measures was published incorrectly. "
She added that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense removed the ban on offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions, as well as the ban on the use of any aircrafts. In addition, it decided to withdraw the establishment and use of a coordinating mechanism to respond to violations of the ceasefire with the assistance of the JCCC in its current composition.
“This unilateral refusal to publish measures alone can be a basis for the conclusion that Ukraine is not going to fulfill the agreements in their current form, although these two measures are among the fundamental ones,” she explained.
Nikonorova reminded that Kiev had previously distorted the text of the additional measures.
The Additional Measures to Strengthen the Ceasefire were signed at the Contact Group meeting on July 22 to reinforce and control the indefinite ceasefire in effect since July 21, 2019, the latest in the series of more than 20 reconfirmation and announcements of the “silence regime”. The package came into effect on July 27. *ot