Press Statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sajdik after Meeting of Trilateral Contact Group on 19 September 2018

MINSK, 20 September 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 19 September 2018:

“As you know, today is the fourth anniversary of the Minsk Memorandum – the second document of the Minsk agreements providing basis for our activities.

Today the Security Working Group discussed the topics of ceasefire implementation, disengagement of forces and hardware, as well as demining.

Noting that the east of Ukraine has become one of the most densely mined areas in the world, the Coordinator of the Group Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan stressed the importance of the so-called "humanitarian demining" and a systematic approach to it.

The Economic Working Group continued its discussion of further steps to improve the quality of the Vodafone Ukraine mobile communication network in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR respectively), as well as current issues of water deliveries in the "Karbonyt" and "Voda Donbasa" supply systems.

I would like to note some good news. Yesterday, the first stage of repair works of Yuzhnodonbasska water pipeline in Avdiivka industrial zone has been accomplished. In this regard, I would like express my gratitude to Mr Per Fischer, Coordinator of the Economic Working Group. I also thank the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) for its support in providing for “windows of silence” necessary for the repair works.

Pensions and social transfers to conflict zone residents was also a topic of discussions in the Working Group.

Coordinator of the Humanitarian Working Group, Ambassador Toni Frisch informed about his field trip to the conflict-affected areas on both sides of the contact line.

During the field trip, the Coordinator visited eleven detention places – in Kharkiv, Starobilsk, Donetsk, Luhansk and Bakhmut. There he met thirty-six detainees, five of them being not conflict-related.

The Working Group on Political Issues further considered questions related to the implementation of the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’, amnesty and modalities of local elections in CADR and CALR as foreseen by the Minsk agreements”.