UA
FR
DEGermany and France representatives Jan Hecker and Emmanuel Bonn supported Ukraine’s position on the development of a single document for the efficient Tripartite Contact Group’s work regarding Donbas. Ukraine’s presidential office’s press service reported this following the working video meeting results of “Normandy Four” states’ leaders’ political advisers.
The Head of the Presidential office Andriy Yermak noted the necessity to intensify the TCG‘s work and called for the adoption of the action plan prepared by the Ukrainian side.
The document is entitled “Plan of joint steps of the Tripartite Contact Group’s members for the Minsk agreements implementation.” “We consider this document to be one that concerns the Minsk agreements implementation in the TCG’s work. This document is the result of all the significant developments in the Normandy format and TCG’s work. I believe that, if an understanding is reached, this plan of joint steps can really become the basis of a great road map that we can adopt at the level of the Normandy format,” Ermak stated.
He also added that the Ukrainian document summarises the proposals that were voiced by the parties at the TCG meetings. Currently, the parties agreed to continue consultations on a single road map development based on the document submitted by Ukraine.
Also, Ukraine supported the German side’s proposal to organise the work of expert groups of advisers to the of the “Normandy Four” countries’ leaders to accelerate this process.
It was reported that during the meeting the Ukrainian side announced the opening of two, new, entry-exit checkpoints in the Luhansk region, but pro-Russian militants block their work. German Chancellor Jan Hecker’s political adviser called on Russia to resolve the issue.
The day before, the Ukrainian delegation to the Tripartite Contact Group on Donbas stated that it considered holding a new summit in the Normandy format by the end of this year be very significant.
To recap, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission report confirmed the information on 946 civilian casualties in Donbas from 1 January 2017 to 15 September 2020, out of which 161 people died. Among these 946 killed and wounded civilians were 100 children (73 boys and 27 girls).
According to the report, in 625 cases, civilians became the victims of heavy weapons or small arms and light weapons: 77 were killed and 548 wounded. More than 85% of these victims were recorded in the Donetsk region.
The OSCE notes that more and more civilians are being killed by mines and other explosive devices due to the mishandling or attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance or other ammunition.
Bohdan Marusyak
