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Luhansk negotiators, Kiev law enforcers, OSCE end meeting in Ukraine’s Luhansk

Donetsk representatives were also expected to participate in the Wednesday meeting, but did not come for talks

LUHANSK, December 31. /TASS/. A working group involving representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Kiev law enforcers and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe officials ended their meeting in embattled east Ukrainian city of Luhansk on Wednesday, a source in the government of the self-proclaimed republic told the Luhansk Information Center.

Meanwhile, negotiators did not give any comments on the results of the meeting and did not give any statements for media.

A similar meeting was held in another conflict-torn east Ukrainian city of Donetsk on December 29. Talks raised three issues, including continuation of Minsk peace talks, ceasefire, pullback of weaponry from the disengagement line, the press service of Donetsk republican Defense Ministry reported. Meanwhile, negotiators agreed on a next stage of captive swap.

Donetsk representatives were also expected to participate in the Wednesday meeting, but did not come for talks.

On Tuesday, Assistant Commander of Luhansk militia corps Vitaly Kiselev said that participants in the meeting planned to talk “military issues raised earlier in [Belarusian capital] Minsk at the Contact Group meeting on crisis settlement in [highly volatile Ukrainian industrial area] Donbas.”

The Contact Group had first meeting in Minsk on September 5. Representatives of Kiev, southeast Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia participated in the meeting. A Donbas peace plan and the ceasefire were agreed upon at talks.

Upon the results of the second meeting in Minsk on September 20 the Contact Group has adopted a memorandum on fulfilling the ceasefire regime.

The 9-clause document includes a ban on the use of all types of weapons, withdrawal of more than 100mm weapons 15 kilometers away from the contact line by each party. Control over fulfilment of document provisions is shouldered on the OSCE.

Conflicting parties declared December 9 as ‘silence regime’ to get back to the fulfilment of the Minsk peace deals in the military operation zone in Donbas. Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics stated about the need to start a pullback of heavy weaponry, make captive swaps and demilitarise the region.

Honouring terms of the deals Luhansk militia started a unilateral pullback of heavy artillery guns from the disengagement line on December 11. In particular, artillery guns D-30 and multiple launch rocket systems BM-21 were withdrawn.

Kiev law enforcers did not begin the pullback of heavy types of weapons, Luhansk military agency said.