Press Statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sajdik after Meeting of Trilateral Contact Group on 4 April 2018

MINSK, 5 April 2018 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG ‎and its Working Groups in Minsk on 4 April 2018:

“As is known, last week the Trilateral Contact Group, with the participation of the representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR), adopted the Statement on recommitment to the ceasefire starting from 30 March on the occasion of the Easter celebrations. I would like to emphasize that the leaders of the Normandy Four also welcomed the Statement.

Taking this opportunity, on behalf of the Head of OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, and on behalf of myself, I would like to express gratitude to all the sides for their efforts to implement the ceasefire on the occasion of the Easter celebrations. Thanks to them, from 30 March the number of ceasefire violations has been significantly reduced.

However, it was not possible to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire during the Roman-Catholic and Protestant Easter. With regard to civilian population, I call on the sides to make every effort to fully comply with the ceasefire on the eve of Orthodox Easter and thereafter. Let me remind you that the Easter period lasts forty days.

Today, the TCG also decided to facilitate contact line crossing via the entry-exit checkpoints in view of the ‘Radunitsa’ commemoration of the departed, so that residents of eastern Ukraine can safely and securely visit churches and cemeteries.

These and other issues related to the continued implementation of the ceasefire and the overall situation in the conflict zone were today the subject of discussions in the Working Group on Security.

The Co-ordinator, Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, reiterated that successful ceasefire implementation urgently requires the application of the previously agreed principles, such as disengagement, demining and removal of heavy weapons, especially from populated areas, and securing of civil infrastructure.  

The Working Group on Economic Issues continued its discussion on further steps required to restore and maintain the mobile network Vodafone-Ukraine in CADR and CALR.

The participants of the Working Group also continued their consideration of issues related to pension payments, water deliveries in the supply systems "Karbonyt" and "Voda Donbassa" as well as the return of freight cars currently located in the non-government controlled areas of Ukraine.

The Working Group on Humanitarian Issues continued its discussion of the exchange of detainees as well as of improving the conditions for crossing the contact line via the checkpoints, in particular in Stanytsia Luhanska.

The main topics of discussion in the Working Group on Political Issues today were the modalities of implementation of the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’ as well as amnesty.

I wish you happy Easter holidays, full of peace and tranquility. In this respect, I hope for a full recommitment to the ceasefire.”