VIENNA, February 7. /TASS/. Ceasefire in Donbass can only be achieved through unconditional withdrawal of all weapons regulated by the Minsk agreements, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Martin Sajdik said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in residential areas is irresponsible and constitutes an open violation of the Minsk agreements and international humanitarian law," the statement reads. "We are still far from a full and sustainable ceasefire, to which all sides have committed at our last Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) consultations on 1 February. Ceasefire can only be achieved through unconditional withdrawal of all weapons regulated by the Minsk agreements," he said.
"Heavy weapons must be immediately withdrawn from residential areas," Sajdik stressed.
According to him, "the Trilateral Contact Group will closely follow developments in the area, including through extraordinary consultations if necessary." "I fully support the relentless efforts of the Special Monitoring Mission to further stabilize the situation in the area, including the appeals and constructive proposals on the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure addressed by the Chief Monitor Ertugrul Apakan to the signatories of the Minsk agreements," Sajdik concluded.
On February 1, members the Contact Group on settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine held a meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, demanding that hostilities in Donbass be stopped, weapons and military hardware be withdrawn from the line of contact area by February 5. However, according to the DPR Operational Command, instead of withdrawing weapons, Kiev has deployed more military hardware to the line of contact.