The extraordinary meeting of the working group on security issues, as was expected, did not bring any results: the Ukrainian side again frustrated the discussion and coordination of the specific functionality of the coordination mechanism, and accordingly, the updated draft of the Measures for the Enhancement and Control of the Effective Ceasefire. Official representative of the DPR to the subgroup on security issues of the Contact Group in Minsk Alexei Nikonorov commented on current state of affairs.
Against the backdrop of the current trend towards increasing ceasefire violations, the only way to prevent the escalation of the conflict remains the establishment of a full-fledged coordination mechanism, including joint inspections, face-to-face meetings and other ways of interaction 24/7.
To date, neither within the coordination mechanism, nor during the meeting we were able to get the Ukrainian side to answer who was guilty of the armed provocations of the AFU that led to the death of a DPR People’s Militia soldier, who gave the order to attack our territory with AT guided missiles, why the security guarantees were not respected during the repair work. These are not the first or last questions that become rhetorical.
Just a month ago, the Republics drew up and sent an updated and detailed draft of the Measures, which also included a detailed description of work of the coordination mechanism. By the last meeting of the working group, we sent a consolidated version of the document, taking into account the position of the Ukrainian side, but so far, we have not made any progress in its coordination.
Instead of focusing all efforts to achieve peace, instead of intensifying the work on the mechanism that can truly serve as a lever for sustainable ceasefire compliance, representatives of Kiev are trying to avoid addressing key issues by imposing their own agenda.
Thus, it is clear that the extraordinary meeting of the working group on security issues was convened exclusively for the sake of populism, and the purpose of this seemingly sincere initiative and concern about the situation was to justify their failure to fulfill obligations. We have to admit: we are seeing that Ukraine is systematically withdrawing from all the previously reached agreements of the Minsk package.
