OSCE Chief Monitor in Ukraine urges sides to heed ceasefire appeal at school year’s start

KYIV, 1 September 2016 – All sides should heed the ceasefire appeal ahead of the start of the new school year, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Ertugrul Apakan said today.

"We urge all sides to heed the call and to establish a full and comprehensive ceasefire. Such adherence can ultimately lead to the stabilization and normalization that the people of Donbas – and in particular, the children – so desperately need,” he said. “The SMM, through its monitoring and reporting, and dialogue facilitation efforts, will continue to help the sides to establish this peace.”

Ambassador Apakan welcomed this new impetus for peace, which is an initiative of the Trilateral Contact Group, and was announced by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Martin Sajdik, last Friday in Minsk.