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Russian Foreign Ministry: both sides mostly observe ceasefire in Donbas

Russia is expecting a general report from the OSCE SMM
Local residents at a checkpoint on the line of contact between Ukraine government troops and the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic . Taras Dudnik/TASS
Local residents at a checkpoint on the line of contact between Ukraine government troops and the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic
© . Taras Dudnik/TASS

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Kiev, Donetsk and Luhansk mostly observe ceasefire in Donbas, Russia’s Envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday.

"Kiev, Donetsk and Luhansk in general observe the agreement on ceasefire in Donbas," Lukashevich said. "According to assessments of OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission [SMM], the situation is ‘calm in general’. This gives hope that the rest of the Minsk Agreements will be implemented as well. There is no alternative to them to reach peace and accord in Ukraine. We welcome developing dialogue between the sides in the Contact Group and its working sub-groups. We note the efforts of OSCE representatives in these mechanisms," he added.

Lukashevich stressed that "more efforts are necessary, first of all from Kiev, to prevent incidents at the contact line." He added that "it is also important to ensure conditions for preventing the resumption of residential areas." "We are expecting a general report from SMM about the targets that suffered from heavy weapons during the conflict and about consequences for peaceful population," the diplomat noted.