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Armed OSCE mission may be deployed to Donbass after security zones set up — diplomat

The sides in Donbass are currently being disengaged at previously agreed points

MINSK, October 26. /TASS/. After establishment of security zones in Donbass, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) police mission with service weapons may be deployed to those areas, Russia’s plenipotentiary representative to the Trilateral Contact Group Boris Gryzlov said Wednesday.

"The sides are currently being disengaged at previously agreed points," Gryzlov said after the group’s regular meeting in Minsk.

"On October 1, relevant decisions were implemented in Zolotoye, then, in seven days, in Petrovskoye. At the same time, disengagement of the sides near Stanitsa Luganskaya has failed yet," he said.

"Relevant problems became one of the key issues to be discussed by coordinators at today’s meeting of the Contact Group," Gryzlov said.

"After implementation of these decisions, the police mission of the OSCE armed with service weapons may be deployed to the sides’ disengagement sites, if the international organization is ready to such activity, of course," he said.

Gryzlov also reported that the Russian side suggested, at the next meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine to be held November 9, "to finally agree the procedure of entry into force of the law on the special status of certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on the basis of the ‘Steinmeier formula’ to be signed by all sides."