Donetsk, Apr 18 – DAN. Kiev representatives at the Contact Group refused to admit responsibility for shelling the Donetsk water treatment plant (DFS) personnel, said DPR envoy to the negotiations Denis Pushilin’s press secretary Viktoria Talakina.
"During today's meeting several methods have been put on table to provide security guarantees for the DFS staff, in accordance with the coordinators' and Republics' opinion. Unfortunately not all the measures received approval; in particular this is about Kiev's side, its representatives do not think they are at fault in the incident at all."
Prior to the meeting in Minsk, Pushilin sent several notes to the OSCE SMM demanding a thorough investigation into Ukraine's ceasefire violations. The DPR and the LPR are to pursue additional measures to ensure a lasting ceasefire and identifying and prosecuting perpetrators.
"Any ceasefire or disengagement of forces agreements seem unlikely in the absence of such mechanisms," Talakina said.
Ukrainian forces opened fire on a convoy carrying Donetsk Water Treatment Plant (DFS) personnel on Tuesday afternoon, wounding five people. The Voda Donbassa state water company adopted a decision to evacuate the remaining personnel from the station, to shut it down and to mothball the facility.
The JCCC said Preliminary agreement had been reached to shut DFS for five days, reconnecting customers to reserve water supply facilities, to stabilize the security situation.
The DFS supplies water to both sides of the contact line: DPR-controlled Donetsk, Yasinovataya, the Vasilyevka and Spartak villages, parts of Makeyevka, and Kiev-controlled Avdeyevka, Krasnogorovka and the Verkhnetoretskoye villages. The overall number of its customers exceeds 400 thousand. *ot