Events

MINSK, 16 October (BelTA) - A meeting of the trilateral contact group on resolving the situation in Ukraine’s east is in progress in Minsk, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The talks of the contact group were preceded by the meetings of the working groups in the Belarusian capital.

At the previous meeting of the trilateral contact group on 2 October OSCE's special representative in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine Martin Sajdik and Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, appealed in a joint statement to the sides of the conflict to proceed with the rapid and full humanitarian demining of populated areas and entry-exit crossing points. They recalled that mine action is a commitment that has been undertaken by all the sides to the Minsk agreements.

Additional measures to secure ceasefire were discussed as well. The Economic Working Group continued the discussion of topical issues related to water deliveries in the "Karbonyt" and "Voda Donbasa" supply systems, including further steps to carry out repair works on the south Donbas water pipeline in Avdeevka’s industrial zone.

The Humanitarian Working Group further considered issues related to the exchange of detainees and the search for missing persons. One of the discussion topics was also the possibility to improve contact line crossing conditions on the side of certain areas of Lugansk region at the Stanytsia Luhanska check point. The Political Working Group continued work on the implementation of the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’.