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Developments in eastern Ukraine

LPR leader: No talk of ceasefire until economic blockade of Donbas is lifted

Representatives of eastern Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics will insist on complete lifting of the economic blockade at the talks of the Contact Group in Minsk on January 30

Igor Plotnitsky (center) Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

Igor Plotnitsky (center)

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

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MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. The Minsk agreements can only be implemented when economic blockade of Donbas is lifted, Igor Plotnitsky, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) said on Thursday.

Both the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic and Luhansk republic will insist on complete lifting of the economic blockade at the talks of the Contact Group in Minsk on January 30, LuhanskInformCentre reported quoting Plotnitsky.

"Ukraine only has to cancel three decisions of the National Security and Defense Council. Only after that we will speak about ceasefire, silence regime and the disengagement line," he said.

The first meeting in the Minsk format was held on September 5, 2014, when the parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire. On September 20 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on a ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.

The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibres of over 100 millimetres to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions. The document was signed by OSCE envoy Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s former president Leonid Kuchma, Russia’s Ambassador to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko and the LPR head, Igor Plotnitsky.

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