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Ukrainian Refugees in Russia

Housing conditions for Ukrainian refugees in Rostov Region improving - UN representative

ROSTOV REGION, December 15. /TASS/. The housing conditions for Ukrainian refugees in Russia’s southern Rostov Region are improving, Baisa Vak-Voya, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Russia, said Monday.

Vak-Voya visited a temporary accommodation center in the Krasny Desant holiday center. He said the attitude toward refugees on the part of those who host them does not become less friendly in a few months, like elsewhere.

There are currently 38,600 Ukrainian refugees, 11,400 of them children, in the Rostov Region.

Fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway southeastern territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics, have killed over 4,000 people.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine.

The ceasefire took effect the same day but has reportedly been violated on numerous occasions.

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum on September 19 in Minsk, which outlined the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.

The nine-point document in particular stipulates a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibers of over 100 millimeters to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.

In another attempt by both parties to the Ukrainian conflict to put an end to hostilities, the "day of silence" in eastern Ukraine began at 09:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on December 9.

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Ukrainian refugees

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