On November 25, the Contact Group held a videoconference meeting on conflict resolution in Donbass, during which participants in the talks listened to the report from the coordinator of the subgroup on security issues, Ambassador Yaşar Halit Çevik, who stressed that he had had to finish the meeting early due to a negotiation deadlock for the first time during his work in the subgroup. DPR Plenipotentiary Representative and Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova commented on the results of the meeting.
“We constantly hear statements from representatives of Ukraine, which we consider strange at least, that the Measures are allegedly working. There are several figures from OSCE SMM reports that suggest otherwise. For just two weeks between the meetings, the number of ceasefire violations where it was possible to ascertain which side opened fire totaled 29 times from Ukraine, and by way of contrast, only one from the DPR.
Once again, the AFU targeted the critical civilian infrastructure: the OSCE confirms an aggravation of the situation in the area of the Donetsk Filter Station. There have been almost 40 cases of positional violation at all the fronts. In addition, the AFU are actively redeploying prohibited weapons to the line of contact.
But the most alarming fact is that for the first time since the Measures came into effect, the Mission registered victims of attacks by the AFU among civilians in the village of Aleksandrovka: a 21-year-old man and his 69-year-old grandfather, both suffered a concussion and had a hospital treatment; residential buildings also were damaged. Before that, there were casualties among defenders of the Republic: three were killed and one seriously wounded.
The November statistics outruns the joint statistics for the previous three months and this obviously proves that the Measures are not working! This is happening only because the coordination mechanism, which was supposed to become an effective mechanism for verification and response to all violations registered by the parties and the OSCE SMM, turned into a profanation when the Ukrainian side disrupted the agreement of the Contact Group on checking positional violations by the AFU in the Shumy area.
Because of that, the Ukrainian side is doing absolutely nothing either to prevent such flagrant violations or to rectify those already registered. Instead, they keep shooting, fitting out new entrenchments, and civilians continue to suffer! And our opponents, as though on cue, keep repeating at the negotiation venue that the Measures are working, that they are totally satisfied with them, and keep pointing at us, instead of discussing and agreeing on specific regulations for the coordination mechanism.
Such a position is the height of cynicism and absurdity, this must not go on like that. It is necessary to agree on a working, effective mechanism to cease fire in full and put an end to other violations,” Natalya Nikonorova stressed.
