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Kiev’s disruption of Minsk-format meeting violates agreements — Russian negotiator

On Monday, the LPR foreign ministry issued a statement requesting an extraordinary meeting of the security subgroup on October 19 over the incident

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Kiev’s disruption of the extraordinary meeting in the Minsk format is a flagrant violation of all possible agreements and commitments and shatters Lugansk’s and Donetsk’s trust, Russia’s chief negotiator at the Contact Group talks, Boris Gryzlov, said on Tuesday after an extraordinary meeting of the Contact Group’s security subgroup.

According to Gryzlov, the Ukrainian side disrupted the security subgroup’s meeting called by the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) after its observer at the Joint Control and Coordination Center (JCCC) had been abducted by Ukrainian troops. "The Lugansk observer is being kept by the Ukrainian side even now," he noted.

"According to the OSCE coordinator, the Kiev side first agreed to take part in the meeting but later said it had not. The Ukrainian side’s conduct is a blatant violation of all possible agreements and commitments. It seriously shatters Donetsk’s and Lugansk’s trust and in no way promotes peaceful settlement of the conflict, especially amid the ongoing shelling attacks on Donbass territories staged by Ukrainian troops," he stressed.

On Monday, the LPR foreign ministry issued a statement requesting an extraordinary meeting of the security subgroup on October 19 over the incident. The request was referred to the head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine.

In the morning of October 13, a Ukrainian reconnaissance party seized an officer of the LPR mission to the JCCC in the disengagement zone near the settlement of Zolotoye during road clearance works that had been previously agreed with the Ukrainian side. The republic demanded an immediate release of the man. Ukraine’s Security Service said that the man had been charged with the organization of an illegal armed group, alleging he had been using a mine clearance operation as a cover for reconnaissance activities. LPR Head Leonid Pasechnik said that further dialogue with Kiev within the Minsk format is senseless until the officer is released. The LPR’s mission to the JCCC restricted a number of routes for SMM monitors.

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