In the situation where the Ukrainian side grossly violates the Additional Measures for the Enhancement and Control of the Effective Ceasefire Regime, we have taken all possible steps to maintain the current fragile truce, DPR Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova says.
“In the hope of resolving the situation, we are making one last attempt to avoid extreme actions. We propose convening an extra meeting of the Contact Group at 12:00 on September 9 in order to decide on the matter of conducting an inspection jointly with representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic and representatives of Ukraine to the JCCC with the assistance of the OSCE to monitor the rectification of violations by the armed forces of Ukraine, which advanced their positions near Shumy. We have already sent the OSCE a letter with this appeal.
We have repeatedly called on the mediators of the negotiation process represented by the OSCE to monitor the Ukrainian positions near Shumy, and addressed representatives of Ukraine, demanding that they must independently rectify their violations of the Additional Measures.
In particular, we regularly informed representatives of the OSCE SMM about violations of the Additional Measures by Ukrainian armed forces regarding position hardening and attempts to change the initial positioning of the troops. The first letter of many similar, which set out specific facts and details of the violations, including video confirmation, was sent to the OSCE as early as on August 12.
The day before, we sent additional material confirming that the Ukrainian side was building new trenches in the Shumy area after July 22, 2020.
However, to date, representatives of this international organization have not taken into account the information we sent, referring to the data from their reports. Representatives of the Ukrainian government act the same. Nevertheless, the facts show that the information documented in those reports does not reflect the actual situation.
We remind that according to the mandate of the Mission, OSCE SMM representatives not only can, but also are obliged to carry out objective, transparent and unbiased monitoring of all cases of non-compliance with the agreements reached at the Minsk venue. We hope that both the Ukrainian side and the mediators to the talks are aware of the importance of preserving the fragile truce that was reached with their help too, and will do their best to prevent a new round of escalation of the conflict,” Natalya Nikonorova said.
