KIEV, June 30. /TASS/. Disengagement of forces near Stanitsa Luganskaya in Donbass has been completed, the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said in a report on Sunday.
The disengagement process began on June 26 when Ukrainian troops and militias of the self-proclaimed republics left their most forward positions in the disengagement area along with their weapons. The parties left other positions in this area within the next few days.
According to the OSCE SMM, Ukrainian troops began "dismantling their forward fortifications and conducting demining work." Militias also dismantled a shed, removed several concrete blocks within the disengagement area and began to establish new crossing infrastructure outside this area.
"On 29 June, the SMM received a Note Verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine notifying that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had completed disengagement in the agreed disengagement area near Stanytsia Luganskaya," the SMM said in the report, adding that a similar letter was received from the militias in the non-Kiev-controlled areas on June 30.
"The situation is calm and stable. The SMM will continue to actively monitor and report on the situation," the SMM said.
A framework agreement on disengagement of forces in Donbass was signed by Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE and the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk in September 2016.
Under the agreement, security zones are to be created at three sections of the line of contact, namely near Petrovskoye (in the Donetsk People’s Republic, or DPR), Zolotoye and Stanitsa Luganskaya (both in the Lugansk People’s Republic, or LPR). The agreement envisages withdrawal of armed forces from the line of contact to create security zones at least one kilometer wide and one kilometer deep.
The disengagement process was completed near Zolotoye and Petrovskoye in October 2016. Stanitsa Luganskaya remained the only site where disengagement did not taken place until today as Ukraine refused to do it, citing as a reason alleged shelling of its positions by LPR’s forces.