Participants in the Contact Group subgroup on economic issues said at the video conference on Tuesday that they would finalise the candidates for the expert group which will discuss environmental issues, press secretary of the Lugansk People’s Republic delegation in the Contact Group Maria Kovshar said.
“During the discussion of environmental issues, the parties reached a preliminary accord to finalise the candidates for the expert group,” Kovshar said. “The possibility to reach a result directly depends on Ukraine’s readiness to sit down at the table with LPR and DPR experts.”
Earlier, LPR representatives said that Ukraine continued to ignore the Republic’s proposals to set up a joint commission to carry out environmental monitoring of hazardous facilities in Kiev-controlled areas of the Lugansk regions, while the administration of the Kiev-controlled territory of the Lugansk region is hiding from residents the information on the catastrophic condition of the environment.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The UN Security Council approved the document by Resolution No 2202 of February 17, 2015 and called upon the parties to ensure its implementation.
The document provides for comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, starting a dialog on reconstruction of social and economic ties between Kiev and Donbass. It also envisages carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine providing for decentralization and adopting permanent legislation on a special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
To facilitate the work of the Contact Group, four working groups were set up under its aegis to deal with issues of security, politics, return of internally displaced people and refuges, as well as with social, humanitarian, economic and rehabilitation issues. *i*s
