Donetsk, Dec 9 - DAN. Ukrainian representatives in the Contact Group have agreed to prepare a substantive response to the Donbass Republics’ proposal on verification of ceasefire violations, the press service of the Donetsk People’s Republic delegation at the Minsk talks reported following the negotiations.
“It became obvious during the discussion of security issues that Ukraine was concerned about the prospects to win political points by making empty political statements rather than the soonest substantive de-escalation of the conflict,” the DPR delegation said.
In the course of the talks, deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation Andrey Kostin, instead of disavowing the remarks by the Ukrainian army command about shooting in Donbass without orders and conducting constructive dialogue on the coordination mechanism was initially ready to only coordinate a short statement on the resumption of the indefinite ceasefire regime, from which neither party had officially withdrawn.
“After our representatives spent eight hours on presenting to Ukraine substantive and irrefutable arguments in favour of our approach, the Kiev representatives decided to take a pause and prepare a substantive response to our proposals. We’re awaiting their document,” the DPR delegation said.
The Contact Group agreed and signed a package of tighter ceasefire control measures in Donbass on July 22, 2020. The “Measures” came into effect five days later. They envision the search for and punishment of ceasefire violators. The document also provides for designing and launching a coordination mechanism for quick response to violations with the assistance of the JCCC in the current membership.
To avoid any manipulations with the coordinates, time and new conditions, the DPR representatives stated their proposals in writing presenting a clear road map within the logic of additional measures towards elimination of positional violations.*jk