LUGANSK, June 19. /TASS/. The members of the Contact Group for the settlement in eastern Ukraine have failed to reach a new ceasefire agreement in Donbass due to Kiev’s unwillingness to accept the offers of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) on ceasefire measures, LPR envoy to the group Vladislav Deynego stated on Wednesday.

"At the previous session of the Contact Group, we have reached a mutual understanding on the need to prepare a new ceasefire agreement, which would involve concrete measures on its implementation and responsibility for violations," Deynego said in a statement published by the Luganskinformcenter news agency. "However, we have failed to reach an agreement on this issue today. The Ukrainian side, despite its previously stated position, was not ready to agree with the ceasefire measures offered by us. The dialogue has reached a stalemate."

According to Deynego, "the new statement proposed for discussion today follows the lines of the "spring ceasefire", which, as several previous agreements, was not effective due to a lack of implementation measures."

He expressed hope that the new ceasefire agreement project offered by the LPR and based on "effective measures aimed to ensure the ceasefire regime" would be approved at the next session.

On June 19, a session of the Contact Group for the settlement in eastern Ukraine has taken place in Minsk. However, its members failed to reach an agreement on a new ceasefire. The next meeting of the Contact Group is set for July 2.

The parties have made more than 20 ceasefire agreements since an armed conflict broke out in Donbass in April 2014 but failed to secure a sustainable ceasefire. On March 7, the security subgroup of the Contact Group on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine agreed to declare a spring ceasefire in Donbass starting on March 8. However, the Ukrainian military broke the ceasefire just five minutes after it had taken effect.