MINSK, July 25. /TASS/. The special envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office to the east-Ukrainian peace settlement talks, Martin Sajdik said on Wednesday the cases of shelling in Donbass became fewer after the imposition of the so-called ‘breadbasket ceasefire’.
"The ceasefire coordinated by the trilateral Contact Group in connection with the start of the marketing season continues bringing fruits," he said. "The Special Monitoring Mission [SMM] of the OSCE says the number of violations of the ceasefire provisions has reduced considerably since July 1 and the number of victims among civilians has gone down, too."
"Specifically, no cases of deaths among the civilians have been registered since the start of this ceasefire," Sajdik said.
He added that the total number of victims among the civilians in the zone of conflict reduced by more than 50% this year compared with the same period a year ago.
"There’s the hope these tendencies will persist and I urge both sides to put every effort into further observance of the ceasefire regulations," Sajdik said.
He called Wednesday’s round of talks fruitful in spite of the absence of the Russian and Ukrainian plenipotentiary representatives in the Contact Group, Boris Gryzlov and Leonid Kuchma.
Earlier on the same day, Boris Gryzlov praised the breadbasket ceasefire and said the number of incidents involving the use of arms had gone down considerably.