Press Statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sajdik after Meeting of Trilateral Contact Group on 27 February 2019

MINSK, 28 February 2019 – 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 27 February 2019:

“I have repeatedly stated that last year the number of civilian casualties was reduced to the lowest level since the beginning of the conflict. This trend continues also in the current year.

Yet, on February 23, 2019, two civilians died and one was injured when a minivan detonated an explosive device on the road in the ‘grey zone’ very close to Olenivka checkpoint in the Donetsk region.

This tragic incident points to the indisputable importance of demining, in particular along the roads around the checkpoints.

Along with the demining issue, I would like to touch upon another aspect of entry-exit checkpoints. The number of crossings of the contact line via the existing checkpoints is constantly increasing.

In this regard, I call on the sides to take urgent measures to improve the capacity of the checkpoints, especially in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR).

These issues, along with the sustainability of the cease-fire, were today in the focus of the Security Working Group.

The Humanitarian Working Group also discussed the question of improving the conditions for crossing the contact line. Of course, the topic of exchange of detainees was also duly considered.

The Economic Working Group considered topical issues of water deliveries, including the audit for the “Voda Donbassa” company to be conducted according to the previously agreed schedule. Another discussion topic was the payment of pensions to residents of CADR and CALR.

Today, the Head of the ICRC in Ukraine, Alain Aeschlimann, also participated in the meetings of the Humanitarian and Economic Working Groups. He will soon leave his post. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr Aeschlimann for his valuable contribution to the solution of several important issues discussed in the TCG.

The Political Working Group took forward its exchanges on its well-known agenda, namely the implementation of the ‘Steinmeier formula’, amnesty and the modalities of local elections in CADR and CALR as stipulated by the Minsk agreements.”