Press Statement of Special Representative Grau after the regular Meeting of Trilateral Contact Group on 8 July 2020

KYIV, 9 July  2020 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Heidi Grau, made the following statement to the press after the regular meetings of the TCG ‎and its Working Groups held through video conferencing:

“The TCG and its Working Groups convened as large forest fires were raging in the Luhansk region, causing casualties and losses among the civilian population.

I welcome that the TCG succeeded to agree on guarantees allowing the safe use of firefighting aircrafts in these areas close to the contact line.

The respective TCG meeting participants also took the commitment to provide the necessary security guarantees in view of the preparation of the simultaneous opening of two additional entry-exit crossing points (EECPs) near Zolote and Schastya of the Luhansk region. Preparatory and construction works will have to be completed within four months. The civilian population on both sides of the contact line has awaited this for a long time.

I also welcome the fact that, in the Security Working Group, the sides reached a joint understanding of a significant number of priority areas for demining on both sides of the contact line, including all EECPs. I look forward to the continuation of this constructive work and an early adoption of the updated demining plan.

Besides the topic of additional EECPs, the Humanitarian Working Group considered issues of the mutual release and exchange of conflict-related detainees as well as the search for missing persons.

In the humanitarian sphere, I am concerned that under the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic the civilian population continues to face additional difficulties to cross the contact line, especially in the Donetsk region. This requires an immediate solution.

The Economic Working Group focused on current issues of water supplies across the contact line, the provision of mobile communications by Vodafone-Ukraine, as well as environmental issues in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine (CADLR).

The participants of the Political Working Group took forward the detailed, line-by-line discussion of proposals of the law “On the Special Order of Local Self-Government in Certain Areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions” aimed at introducing CADLR's special status after the local elections foreseen by the Minsk Agreements.”