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OSCE envoy confirms commitment to Minsk accords

OSCE Special Representative for Ukraine Martin Sajdik has confirmed his full commitment to the Minsk accords after a meeting of the Contact Group

MINSK, January 30. /TASS/. OSCE Special Representative for Ukraine Martin Sajdik has confirmed his full commitment to the Minsk accords after a meeting of the Contact Group for the settlement in the east of Ukraine on Wednesday.

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"Relying on the experience of my more than three-year-long activity, I want to emphasize my full commitment to the Minsk agreements and personal belief that they are necessary and have no alternative for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the east of Ukraine," the OSCE envoy said.

"This is our common task," he stressed.

A next session of the Contact Group is due in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on February 13, Sajdik said.

"Participants in the Contact Group have confirmed that the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine is possible only on the basis of the Minsk agreements," Russia’s envoy to the Contact Group Boris Gryzlov also said on Wednesday.

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, signed a 13-point Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements.

The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk starting from February 15 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including prisoner exchange in the all-for-all format, local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.

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