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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Poroshenko: conflict in eastern Ukraine can be settled only on basis of Minsk agreements

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)-mediated talks on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk

KIEV, December 16. /TASS/. The conflict in eastern Ukraine can only be settled on the basis of a peace plan based on the Minsk agreements, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday after a meeting with Federica Mogherini, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

“We have a common agreement that we try to settle this conflict exclusively on the basis of a peace plan, my peace plan committed to paper in the Minsk agreements, the Minsk protocol of September 5 and the Minsk memorandum of September 19.” He said.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)-mediated talks on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk. On September 19 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.

The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibres of over 100 millimetres to a distance of 15 kilometres from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions. The memorandum was signed by 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 Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky.

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Eastern Ukraine

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