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OSCE calls on parties to conflict in Donbass to pull back weapons

Hug told journalists at Saturday’s news conference the DPR had agreed to withdraw the weapons in line with the Minsk accords

DONETSK, February 11. /TASS/. Alexander Hug, the principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, has urged the parties to the conflict in Donbass to pull the weapons back from the contact line.

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OSCE records unprecedented number of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine

Hug told journalists at Saturday’s news conference the DPR had agreed to withdraw the weapons in line with the Minsk accords. He urged all the sides to the conflict to contact OSCE observers so that the sides could withdraw weapons.

On February 8, the command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) came up with a plan agreed with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The plan, which aims to get the situation along the contact line in embattled Donbass back to normal, envisages immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all weapons banned by the Minsk peace deal, unhindered access for OSCE SMM observers to weapons storage sites and creation of a zone free of any armaments and troops within a radius of one kilometer around the Donetsk water filtering station along with a ban on all offensive operations. However, the Ukrainian military command ignored the proposal, whereas OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug refused to act as a mediator in the negotiations.

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