Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 20 September (BelTA) – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, President of the Swiss Confederation Didier Burkhalter believes that the ceasefire implementation memorandum signed in Minsk on the night of 19/20 September is an important step towards the de-escalation of the situation in the region, reads a statement of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office cited by news agencies.

According to Didier Burkhalter, the memorandum is a "significant step towards making the ceasefire sustainable and an important contribution in the efforts to peacefully settle the crisis in Eastern Ukraine."

On the night of 19/20 September, the contact group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and the self-proclaimed republics signed a memorandum regulating the implementation of the Minsk Protocol passed by the contact group on 5 September. The memorandum consists of nine provisions. It underlines that the ceasefire is to be considered bilateral. Military elements and military formations shall be stopped at their contact line as of September 19. The memorandum also bans the usage of all kinds of weapons and offensive operations. Within 24 hours of the memorandum’s signing, the parties shall pull heavy weaponry 15 kilometers back on each side of the contact line, creating a 30-kilometer buffer zone. Placing of mine barriers at the border of the buffer zone is prohibited. Mine barriers that were placed earlier within the buffer zone shall be removed. Combat aircraft and foreign aerial vehicles, with the exception of OSCE vehicles, are banned from flying above the security zone. An OSCE observer mission is to be deployed in the ceasefire zone within 24 hours since the memorandum is signed. All foreign armed groups, military hardware as well as militants and mercenaries are to be withdrawn from the Ukrainian territory under the supervision of the OSCE.

Taking part in the session were Heidi Tagliavini, former president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko, Vice Premier of the Donetsk People’s Republic Andrei Purgin, and head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Igor Plotnitsky.

The previous negotiations on the Ukrainian crisis took place in Minsk on 5 September. Back then the sides signed a protocol, which, among other things, stipulated ceasefire in the conflict zone in Ukraine.