Donetsk, Sep 4 - DAN. Ukrainian representatives at the security subgroup meeting in Minsk on Wednesday were unable to articulate their position concerning the DPR and LPR proposals to resolve the disengagement problem in the pilots areas in Donbass, the Donetsk People’s Republic representative to the Contact Group, Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said.
“Kiev could not state a clear position on our follow-up project and the acceptable procedure to fulfil all the conditions for completing the disengagement of forces and hardware in Petrovskoye and Zolotoye,” Nikonorova said. “In this connection, the Republics suggested holding an extraordinary video conference exclusively devoted to disengagement issues and approval of the Republics’ schedule of disengagement events.”
This will provide a uniform procedure for necessary operations for real completion of the disengagement process.
The Contact Group participants - DPR, LPR, Ukraine, Russia and OSCE signed the framework agreement on disengagement of forces in Donbass 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 completed in the Petrovskoye and Zolotoye areas in October 2016. In Stanitsa Luganskaya, it was completed on June 30, 2019. Meanwhile, the DPR and LPR Offices at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination repeatedly reported an unstable situation in the Petrovskoye and Zolotoye disengagement zones where Ukrainian troops were spotted again. Donetsk and Lugansk demand that Kiev restore the parity and pull back its forces from the withdrawal areas.*jk