DONETSK, November 5. /TASS/. The sides in eastern Ukraine have not yet come to an agreement on a demarcation line and security zone, a deputy chief monitor of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine said after talks in Donetsk on Wednesday.

As soon as the sides reach a final agreement on the demarcation line, it will be included in the documents and a security zone will be established, in line with which both Kiev and militias will move heavy weapons 15 kilometers away from this line, Alexander Hug said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the conflicting parties held talks in Donetsk which were attended by the monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Hug stressed that the fact that the sides conducted talks is a positive development in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.

The first deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Ravil Khalikov, confirmed to TASS that the negotiations have taken place.

“We discussed a range of issues, linked to ceasefire regime. The negotiations are continuing,” he said, declining to reveal further details.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko told reporters on Wednesday that the ceasefire regime agreed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in September “is still in effect” in Ukraine.

This statement came despite reports that Ukraine’s troops shelled the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) on Monday evening in violation of the Minsk agreements. Over 20 civilians were killed in the shelling.

OSCE to boost monitoring mission in Ukraine

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe intends to increase its mission in Ukraine up to 500 monitors by the end of 2014, a deputy chief monitor of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine said on Wednesday.

Alexander Hug said the mission currently comprises 260 monitors, including 130 in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

He also said the mission's mandate is valid until March 21, 2015.

According to the United Nations, more than 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s war-torn southeast as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway territories.