Press Statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chair in Ukraine and in TCG Sajdik after Meeting of TCG and working groups on 15 Oct 2019

MINSK, 15 October 2019 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG ‎and its working groups in Minsk on 15 October 2019:

“At the end of last week I spent two days in the east of Ukraine. In particular, I  got a first-hand update on the situation in Stanytsia Luhanska. I was impressed by the pace of the repair works at the bridge across the Siverskyi Donets river.

On October 4, a temporary bypass bridge was opened there. I personally walked across it and was able to observe the restoration of the broken span of the main bridge.

I witnessed the great achievement that facilitates crossing the line of contact for civilians. Let me remind you that the launch of the repair works was preceded by three years of negotiations.

I regret to say that I cannot give a positive assessment of adherence to the ceasefire, as the number of violations has recently risen sharply.

For this reason, I strongly appeal to the sides and call on them, while realising their political and humanitarian responsibilities to the civilian population, to do everything necessary to ensure a sustainable ceasefire.

The security situation in the conflict zone, as well as the issues of the renewal of the disengagement of forces and hardware in the Zolote and Petrivske areas, were today the main topics of discussion in the TCG and the Security Working Group. The sides failed to renew the disengagement of forces and hardware in Zolote and Petrivske on October 7, 2019 as per the agreement reached at the previous meeting. However, the sides confirmed their commitment to implement this decision. I hope that in the very near future we shall witness its implementation.

The Economic Working Group, among other topics, discussed issues of mobile communications and water supply across the contact line in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR) as well as pension payments.

The Humanitarian Working Group continued discussions on an exchange of detainees. Issues of the search for missing persons were also addressed.

In the focus of the Political Working Group today was the legal realization of a special status for CADR and CALR, in particular taking into account the decentralization process in Ukraine. The issues of amnesty and modalities of local elections in CADR and CALR were also discussed”.