Press Statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sajdik after meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on 1 March 2017

MINSK, 2 March 2017 – 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 1 March 2017:

“As you remember, on 1 February, 2017 the TCG and the representatives from certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk of Ukraine made a statement calling for cessation of fire, withdrawal of heavy weapons, security guarantees for members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), as well as protection of the civilian population and critical infrastructure, in particular through the creation of so-called safety zones in the surrounding areas.

Today’s discussion in the Working Group on Security Issues, as well as in the TCG, took up these issues further, which had also been discussed at an extraordinary TCG video conference on 25 February, 2017.

In this context, today particular attention was paid to the operation and safety of Donetsk Filtration Station (DFS).

Based on the proposal of Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, the parties agreed on the following:

• no shelling or other attack on the DFS;
• demining of the DFS area and its access roads;
• security guarantees (facilitated by the Joint Control for Control and Co-ordination) in order to enable safe, secure and unfettered access for the DFS staff, repair teams and the SMM.

The parties also appealed to the SMM to facilitate the implementation of the disengagement of forces and hardware in the planned disengagement area of Stanytsia Luhanska on 7 March, 2017.

In addition, the sides reiterated their commitment to the full withdrawal of heavy weapons.

The sides discussed safety guarantees for the OSCE SMM personnel and equipment and expressed a firm intention to publicly express their respect for this principle.

In the humanitarian field, discussions on the release of detainees in relation to the conflict continued. Particular attention was paid to the establishment of a mechanism that would enable a third party to mediate the verification procedure for detainees who, after their release, prefer to stay in the territory where they were in detention.

The Working Group on Economic Issues further discussed the water supply in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as well as protection of infrastructure objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.

Besides, the Working Group members discussed environmental issues related to the flooded coal mines in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in particular the opportunities to appoint an international expert group to address this question.

The representatives of the Working Group on Economic Issues also considered the blockade of railway lines and reaction in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The members of the Working Group on Political Issues exchanged views, among other matters, on the Decree of 18 February, 2017 “On the recognition in the Russian Federation of documents and license plates issued to Ukrainian citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in the territory of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.”