Press statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chairperon-in-Office Sajdik after the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on 24 May 2017

MINSK, 25 May 2017 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG ‎and its working groups in Minsk on 24 May 2017:

“Last time, I noted with deep sorrow that the first days of May saw the highest death toll among the civilian population since a very long time. Today, I would like to draw your attention to the deplorable statistics provided by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: all the indicators point to a negative development. It is very sad that the number of civilian deaths has increased by 120% compared with the same period last year, as reported by OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).

This is largely the result of continuous use of heavy weapons in the five hot spots, as well as of the delay in the demining process. I would like to note that 85% of all the ceasefire violations occured in three zones – Avdiivka/Yasynuvata, Mariupol and Svitlodarsk/Horlivka. This means that it is possible to rapidly and significantly reduce the number of civilian casualties provided that the parties demonstrate their good will.

The facts mentioned above are a clear violation of the Minsk Agreements and cannot be tolerated. I condemn this development and call upon all the parties of the conflict to respect human life, to fulfil their obligations under international law and to protect the civilian population on both sides of the line of contact.

Today, the Working Group on Security Issues focused on the afore-mentioned matters. It was repeatedly noted that the use of proscribed weapons shall be prosecuted.

The participants also presented their proposals for new areas for disengagement of forces and hardware. The Working Group on Security will consequently be able to give further more detailed consideration to this issue.

In the humanitarian field, a detailed discussion was conducted on the results of the implementation of the attestation mechanism to assess the free will of detainees to be exchanged. In this regard, I would like to express my gratitude to the Ukrainian Ombudsperson for Human Rights, Valeriya Lutkovska, who once again participated in our meetings today. Her efforts are indeed a valuable contribution to the process.

The discussions in the Working Group on Economic Issues were run in an intensive and business-like manner. Participants confirmed their commitment to the agreement on water supply to certain areas of the Luhansk region (CALR). They agreed to provide concrete proposals on the respective payment mechanism in accordance with Ukrainian legislation in the coming days. Issues of protection and maintenance of civil infrastructure were also discussed. The participants welcomed an integrated approach to addressing environmental issues in the conflict zone.

In the political field, the discussion focused on issues related to the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’.”