KIEV, October 12. /ITAR-TASS/. New governor of Ukraine’s much-troubled eastern Donetsk region, has confirmed that the Kiev government and the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on introducing “the silent mode” on the line of disengagement of forces of the warring sides.
He did not rule out a possible exchange of litigious territories.
“The information at my disposal indicates that the agreement was indeed signed on Friday night,” Alexander Kiktenko, who has the rank of a general at the Ukrainian Armed Forces
He said the document had been signed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Gen Yuri Dumansky and by the Prime Minister of the unrecognized Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko.
“Both sides are observing it,” Kiktenko said. “It’s true there are some litigious areas along the contact line that was established as a result of the Minsk Agreement, and then there are territories staying under control of the DPR. So if the problem of an exchange of territories between the two sides arises, the decision will be taken at a really high level then.”
Alexander Zakharchenko said Saturday that the “silent mode” had been introduced in coordination with a yet another unrecognized self-proclaimed entity as of October 11.
“After that heavy weapons will be withdrawn /from the areas adjoining the line of disengagement - TASS/ under control of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” he said. “We’re awaiting a signal of readiness from the OSCE.”
Ravil Khalikov, the Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, said earlier agreement with the Kiev government on the line of disengagement had been reached.
“In the final run, the Ukrainian side agreed to a demarcation line as it is marked off on our maps,” he said.
Andrei Lysenko, a spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, did not confirm on the signing of the agreement on the demarcation line.
Vladislav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the staff of the so-called ‘antiterrorist operation’ in eastern Ukraine said in a comment to the Ukrainskaya Pravda news portal that Kiev had not coordinated the line of disengagement with the Kiev government.
Parties to the talks on ending the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine signed a protocol on peaceful settlement in southeastern parts of Ukraine in Minsk on September 5. It consisted of twelve points, the main of which stipulated a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners of war.
September 20, the Contact Group for Ukraine adopted a special memorandum on ceasefire at a meeting in Minsk. This is a nine-point document that includes, among other things, a ban on the use of all the type of weaponry and the pullback of weapons with calibers bigger than 100 mm away from the line of contact to the distance of 15 km inside each warring party’s territory.
Control over the execution of the memorandum has been vested in the OSCE.