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Lavrov troubled that Kiev may sabotage new disengagement efforts in Donbass

A new attempt to disengage forces near Stanitsa Luganskaya in Donbass is set for November 4

© AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, archive

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. A new attempt to disengage forces near Stanitsa Luganskaya in Donbass is set for November 4, but Ukraine will undermine it for sure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at Tuesday’s meeting with the members of the Association of European Businesses.

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"The [Normandy format] leaders agreed to galvanize establishment of security areas along the contact line a year ago," Lavrov reiterated. "Several areas were chosen as a pilot zone. Heavy armaments were disengaged in two areas, and the third area, coordinated by all, is called Stanitsa Luganskaya. Efforts to disengage heavy armaments there failed, as Ukrainians said they could not do it because of the ongoing firing."

The minister noted that the Ukrainian side said then it was ready to start the disengagement only after a week of complete silence. "Since that time - you can learn it from the members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission - this organization reported absolute silence eight times, but each time when the OSCE reported about it and suggested the start of heavy arms disengagement, Ukrainians said ‘this is your statistics, and we counted one hundred shots,’" the Russian top diplomat continued.

"There [will be] a new attempt to start the disengagement on November 4," Lavrov added. "This will be the ninth week of complete silence that - I hardly doubt it, although I want to be mistaken - will be disputed by Ukrainians who will present their statistics.".

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