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Contact Group discusses package of additional measures to ceasefire agreement

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine held a meeting in Minsk

MINSK, September 19. /TASS/. The Trilateral Contact Group seeking a peace solution in eastern Ukraine discussed at a regular meeting in the Belarussian capital of Minsk on Wednesday that a package of additional measures might be added to the ceasefire agreement, Russia’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the Group Boris Gryzlov said after the meeting.

"Today, the Contact Group’s meeting considered a package of additional measures to the ceasefire agreement," he said. "The measures banning any acts of sabotage had been drafted by the DPR [the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic] after the August 31 terrorist attack when the republican head, Alexander Zakharchenko, was killed," Gryzlov said.

Gryzlov pointed out that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had again disrupted the withdrawal of troops and weapons near Stanitsa Luganskaya.

"Notably, there were no reasons to delay the disengagement of forces," the Russian envoy said. "This is confirmed by reports of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM)."

"The key condition for a lasting lull along the contact line is disengagement of forces along the entire line," Gryzlov concluded.

At a regular meeting in Minsk in August, the Contact Group seeking peace in eastern Ukraine agreed another ceasefire. The ‘back-to-school ceasefire’ came into force at midnight on August 29. Since the outbreak of hostilities in Donbass, the sides have reached more than 20 ceasefire agreements. The most successful of them was in 2016 when the lull lasted for six weeks.