Donetsk, Dec13 – DAN. OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said disengagement of forces and hardware in Petrovskoye village helped improve the situation in the area.

Hug, on inspection visit to the village, said “We are in a restive area, but the situation is more or less stable which shows that disengagement of forces and hardware helped stabilise the situation this way or another.”

The disengagement of forces and hardware in Petrovskoye took place on 7 October under the Contact Group framework agreement. The document sets the procedure for withdrawing the conflicting sides’ units in three pilot areas: Petrovskoye (DPR) and Stanitsa Luganskaya and Zolotoye (LPR).

Each pilot area forms a security zone two kilometre wide and two kilometres deep. Disengagement has only been completed in Petrovskoye and Zolotoye. Ukraine repeatedly derailed disengagement process in Luganskoye.

In mid-November, OSCE SMM installed a surveillance camera in Petrovskoye. *jk