Press Statement of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Special Representative Sajdik after the Meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on 20 September 2017

MINSK, 21 September 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 20 September 2017:

“Today, like last time, I would like to start by presenting the developments since late August, when the TCG participants confirmed their commitment to permanent ceasefire on the occasion of the beginning of the school year. The level of ceasefire violations has remained on average appreciably lower than before August 25, but the recent trends cannot but raise concerns.

According to the special report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), released last week, in 2016 the number of civilian victims in the conflict zone reached 442 persons (88 killed and 354 wounded); of these, there were 34 children (6 dead and 28 wounded). By 17 September this year, according to the OSCE SMM data, civilian casualties amounted to 383 persons (68 killed and 315 wounded).

This is just unacceptable. With this in mind, the TGG will continue to make every effort so that the sides stand further for the permanent cessation of fire, and to avoid the resumption of active military operations in the autumn, as it happened in 2016 and 2015

The discussions in the Working Group on Economic Issues today were centred on water deliveries. It was positively noted that the water supply system "Karbonyt" has been functioning uninterruptedly. I believe that this is a very important achievement for the people. The Working Group also touched upon the issues of securing the critical facilities of water supply infrastructure in the conflict zone.

The Working Group on Political Issues continued its discussion about the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’ and its implementation.

This time again, the Working Group on Humanitarian Issues discussed the issues of the exchange of detainees. Its Coordinator, Ambassador Frisch, welcomed last week’s transfer of 19 detainees not related to the conflict from certain areas of Donetsk region to the Ukrainian side. We hope that a similar initiative will follow suit from the side of certain areas of Luhansk region.

As for repairs to the access roads to the bridge in Stanytsia Luhanska, expectations were expressed that the Ukrainian side would finally give its consent to the implementation of the ICRC project.

As I mentioned in the beginning, our common focus today was on the implementation issues of the recommitment to ceasefire. These topics also were in the forefront of consideration in the work of the members of the Working Group on Security Issues and the TCG.”