On Monday, January 18, the first meeting of the working group on security issues of this year was held via videoconferencing. Its details were reported by the Representative Office of the Donetsk People’s Republic to the JCCC.
The republics put the main emphasis on the increase in the level of escalation and the need to clarify and subsequently agree on the measures to enhance the indefinite ceasefire regime as soon as possible in terms of the functionality of the coordination mechanism with the participation of the JCCC in its current composition.
According to the information provided by the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC, there were 135 violations of the indefinite ceasefire regime between 15 December and 17 January, more than half of which — 79 times — have been registered since the beginning of 2021.
The number of cases when the enemy used weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements has increased significantly:
— 120 mm mortars were used 20 times, 229 shells were fired;
— 82 mm mortars were used 7 times, 38 shells were fired on the territory of the Republic.
Of particular concern was the fact that the enemy used incendiary ammunition. Thus, on December 29, 2020, on the eve of the New Year holidays, more than 50 shells of 120 mm caliber, 12 of them incendiary, were fired from three directions by the armed forces of Ukraine on Leninskoye and Kominternovo located in the south of the Republic. It is worth noting that these weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction and their use in civilian areas is forbidden in accordance with the UN Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects.
According to the reports of the OSCE SMM during this period, monitors registered the presence of prohibited weapons and equipment of the AFU in violation of the withdrawal lines, in the security zone and outside the storage sites.
Official representative of the Republic Alexey Nikonorov recalled that positional violations by the AFU along the entire line of contact are registered almost on a daily basis. A total of 42 cases when positions were retrofitted, including with the use of trench charges, were registered in the period between the meetings.
Alexey Nikonorov recalled that the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC had repeatedly sent official letters with attached video evidence to the OSCE SMM interaction team, demanding that the Ukrainian side must rectify violations and calling on the Mission to register those facts and document them in daily reports, but there was no response.
“The situation at the line of contact continues to deteriorate. Over the past month, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have stepped up attacks on the territory of the Republic with the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements. On the eve of the New Year holidays, populated localities in the south of the Republic were attacked by incendiary mortar shells of 120 mm caliber, which is a violation of international conventions.
The number of ceasefire violations and mortar shells fired on our territory at the moment is comparable to the numbers before the entry-into-force of the Ceasefire Enhancement Measures.
The coordination mechanism, which should have helped to prevent and stop the attacks, has in fact been disabled by the Ukrainian side. More than four months have already passed since the republics proposed a consolidated draft of the Measures that took into account positions of both sides, in which the principle of cooperation with the involvement of the JCCC in its current composition was clarified and all the identified points unaccounted for earlier were added, but the Ukrainian side is evading their discussion and agreement. If the key issue on our working group’s agenda continues to be ignored, an escalation of hostilities is inevitable,” Alexey Nikonorov stressed.
The representative of the Republic called on the negotiators to focus on discussing a consolidated document of the measures to strengthen and control the ceasefire.
“To fulfil the agreements effectively, it is necessary to exclude discrepancies. This is the only way to move forward on other issues, such as demining, agreement on new disengagement areas, Addendums to the Framework Decision on Disengagement of Forces and Assets. The representatives of Kiev claim that the measures are generally being implemented and that there is no need to finalize this document. Unfortunately, this does not correspond to reality — the Ukrainian side has de facto withdrawn from the agreements back in September and does not implement any of the items,” Nikonorov outlined the position of the Republic.
Thus, the possibility of implementing the full-fledged work of the coordination mechanism, which could have fundamentally changed the current situation at the line of contact, remains disabled by the Ukrainian side.
During the meeting, Kiev’s representatives also raised the need to carry out repair and restoration work at the Maryinka gas distribution station. The Ukrainian side undertook to elaborate and send a written proposal with all the details and locations of the proposed presence of JCCC and OSCE SMM representatives for further discussion, the main condition being the possibility of visual monitoring of the location and progress of the work.
