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Poroshenko: Ukrainian authorities spare no effort to keep ceasefire in Donbass in place

He also said that he did not plan to call another mobilization wave

KIEV, September 20. /TASS/. Ukraine’s authorities are sparing no effort to keep the ceasefire regime in Donbass in place, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko said in an interview with Ukrainian television channels on Sunday.

"According to today’s reports, we have no casualties at the frontline. The entire vertical [of power] is doing its utmost to preserve the ceasefire regime," he said, adding that now that the truce in Donbass had been generally observed he did not plan to call another mobilization wave. However, if the situation deteriorated, a new mobilization wave would be announced immediately, he warned.

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 was agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republic 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 local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.

Following an agreement on lasting truce in Donbass from September 1 reached at the Minsk Contact Group talks on August 26, only isolated cases of ceasefire violations have been reported from southeastern Ukraine.