LUGANSK, July 28. /TASS/.Ukrainian representatives, who attended the videoconference of the Trilateral Contact Group’s security subgroup, have attempted to review the obligations to ensure additional measures for ceasefire in the Donbass region signed by all parties to the talks in July 22, including Ukraine’s special representative, authorized envoy of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to the Minsk talks and LPR Foreign Minister Vladislav Deynego said.
"The Ukrainian representatives in the subgroup practically declared their refusal to use the coordination mechanism to react to ceasefire violations with the assistance from the JCCC (Joint Center for Control and Coordination - TASS) in the current composition of representatives of Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR, trying to obligate the OSCE SMM (Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine - TASS) to assume these functions of coordination," Luganskinformcenter news agency quoted him as saying.
He underlined that such moves by Kiev question the efficiency of the additional measures as a whole. "We believe that these attempts of the Ukrainian side, made with full understanding that the OSCE SMM deems it impossible to assume functions that are alien to the mission, undermines the efficiency and proficiency of the additional measures in their own right and the ceasefire itself, as it is directly dependent on the efficiency of the additional measures," Deynego underscored.
The DPR mission to the JCCC also emphasized that Kiev’s representatives to the subgroup "once again tried to reject implementation of the previously signed agreements in their interests and stray away from assumed obligations." "Official representatives of the republics urged opponents to return to constructive work and act based on the existing real facts," the mission noted. "The attempts to rewrite the agreements reached at the level of the [Trilateral] Contact Group are unacceptable." The DPR representative called on the Ukrainian side to "not change the documents that were already approved but to implement the obligations they assumed." The DPR also acknowledged that the limited time for the videoconference did not allow the parties to discuss the issue of disengaging forces and hardware.
The security subgroup’s videoconference was initiated by Kiev.
The Trilateral Contact Group for settling the crisis in eastern Ukraine on July 22 agreed the implementation of additional measures to ensure ceasefire’s effect starting with July 27. The measures include banning shelling attacks, sniper fire, offensive and reconnaissance activities, the use of aerial vehicles, and the deployment of heavy weapons to settlements.