Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM address the Permanent Council

VIENNA, 1 December 2016 – In their fifth briefing to the OSCE Permanent Council this year, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group Martin Sajdik and the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan yesterday focused on the need for a real normalization and stabilization in eastern Ukraine, particularly through the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

“We have managed to keep the Minsk process on track despite an increasingly complex environment,” said Sajdik. “Our most important achievement remains a significant reduction in casualties”, he said. “The number of killed civilians has decreased by roughly two third this year.”

Sajdik gave an overview of the comprehensive and complex work under way in the four Working Groups of the Trilateral Contact Group and expressed his gratitude to the relentless commitment of the four Working Group Coordinators, Ertugrul Apakan (Security WG), Pierre Morel (Political WG), Toni Frisch (Humanitarian WG) and Per Fischer (Economic WG). “The Coordinators’ common goal is to truly alleviate the plight of civilians in the conflict.”

Apakan said that following a relatively calm period in September, the situation in eastern Ukraine is again volatile and dangerous with the ceasefire being broken daily and proscribed weapons remaining in use. “The period of relative quiet in the beginning of September lasted only for a few weeks. Fighting has since returned to Donbas. We have all, however, learned an important lesson through these few weeks of silence. A comprehensive ceasefire is possible,” he said.

Apakan emphasized that people near the contact line are exhausted and are looking for normalization, stabilization and for an end to violence. “This will need political will and commitment. The measures contained in the Minsk agreements remain the only ones agreed by all sides, and they need to implement them,” he concluded.

Read the statements of Martin Sajdik and Ertugrul Apakan delivered to the OSCE Permanent Council on 1 December 2016:

Presentation by the OSCE CiO Special Representative, Amb. Martin Sajdik, in the OSCE Permanent Council

Summary of the Statement by the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine to the OSCE Permanent Council