Contact group agreed to resume the regime of silence in Donbass | News from Germany about Ukraine

“An understanding was reached about the possibility of resuming a ceasefire on the contact line in Donbass,” – this was the outcome of a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, December 22, the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported.

“For the first time in a long time, there is a real opportunity to ensure a regime of silence on the contact line,” said the first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the contact group Andriy Kostin.

Kiev saw readiness for a ceasefire

“The Ukrainian side is completely ready for this. It is important that we saw the readiness of the other side,” Kostin emphasized. According to him, this measure is especially important given the upcoming winter holidays. The ability to guarantee one hundred percent fulfillment of the relevant promises and implement the agreements on strengthening the ceasefire, agreed on July 22, 2020, will mean an opportunity to go through the path of peace and on a number of other necessary points, the first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation is sure.

Aggravation of the situation on the contact line

In Donbass, from July 27, 2020, additional measures of control over the ceasefire have been in force, which were agreed by the TCG participants. Despite the agreement on these measures, since the end of February 2021, an aggravation of the situation has been observed in Donbass. Shooting resumed on the line of contact.

The situation worsened even more in mid-October, after the retention of observers of the special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE SMM) in a hotel in Horlivka, controlled by separatists from the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”).

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