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More than 300 heavy industry companies in DPR resume production

The enterprises that resumed operation make up more than 80% of all organizations that had been functioning before the military conflict started

MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. More than 300 heavy industry enterprises in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in the southeast of Ukraine resumed production since November last year, the industry strategy development department at the DPR administration head said on Monday.

"More than 300 large enterprises in the heavy mechanical engineering, chemical, by-product coke industry and metallurgical industry have resumed operation this year — despite the fact that the operation of almost all industrial enterprises of the republic was suspended when Ukraine launched the so-called ATO [military operation in Donbas], the Donetsk news agency quotes a DPR administration official.

The department also said that the enterprises that resumed operation make up more than 80% of all organizations of the specified sectors that had been functioning before the military conflict started.

"Among the 300 companies that resumed operation there are 30 major heavy mechanical engineering enterprises, four major metallurgical enterprises and five major by-product coke industry enterprises," the department said.

Since September 1, the sides to the Ukrainian conflict agreed a complete cessation of fire along the contact line in line with the Minsk peace deal. The ceasefire became the main condition for a new withdrawal of weapons in compliance with the document initialed by the Contact Group on September 29 and later signed by the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and Kiev as well.

On September 29, the Trilateral Contact Group initialed a document envisaging withdrawal of weapons under 100mm caliber to a distance of 15 kilometers for the line of engagement. In line with the agreement, the Ukrainian military are due to pull the weapons back from the current contact line while the militias of the self-proclaimed republics from the line determined on September 19, 2014, when first agreements on ceasefire were achieved and the Contact Group signed a memorandum on cessation of fire.

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 republics in Donetsk and Luhansk 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.