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Lugansk, Donetsk republics to announce agreement with Kiev on observing strict ceasefire

“I believe you will learn about both the plan and everything else especially after the republics’ heads will declare about a ceasefire,” - LPR Acting Defence Minister Oleg Bugrov said

LUGANSK, November 29. /TASS/. Leaders of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk /DPR and LPR/ will announce an agreement with Kiev on observing a strict ceasefire in Donbass, LPR Acting Defence Minister Oleg Bugrov told reporters on Saturday.

“I believe you will learn about both the plan and everything else especially after the republics’ heads will declare about /an agreement to observe/ a ceasefire,” Bugrov said specifying that delimitation of the republics’ borders was not on the table.

“We are not talking LPR borders,” he said. “Let’s focus on the document, the first one to be implemented, or the Minsk accords.”

On September 20 the Contact Group on Ukraine adopted a memorandum on implementing a ceasefire. OSCE envoy Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s former president Leonid Kuchma, Russia’s Ambassador to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov, DPR Prime Minister Aleksandr Zakharchenko and the head of Lugansk People’s Republic /LPR/, Igor Plotnitsky, signed the nine-item document that included a ban on all weapons, pulling back heavy weapons from the line of engagement and setting up a buffer zone of 15 kilometres. The memorandum also entrusts the OSCE with a task of controlling implementation of the agreements.

DPR first deputy Prime Minister Andrey Purgin and LPR parliament Speaker Aleksei Karyakin were among the negotiators.

The previous meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine was held in Minsk on September 5 when the sides adopted a 12-item protocol on peace settlement in Ukraine, with agreements on a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners.

On September 3 Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested his seven-item plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine.