Lugansk People’s Republic representative in the Contact Group humanitarian subgroup, head of the Republic’s working group on prisoner exchange Olga Kobtseva has suggested that the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovnaya Rada) approve a road map to Kiev’s fulfilling the Minsk accords.

“Ukraine has ignored all the commitments recorded by Contact Group protocols,” Kobtseva said at a press briefing at the Lugansk Media Centre. “To avoid this casuistry, to prevent Ukraine from dodging its commitments in the future, I made a statement addressing humanitarian subgroup coordinator (for the OSCE Charlotta Relander) to communicate to the Contact Group the expediency and necessity of approving a roadmap within its framework, with subsequent approval of the roadmap by the Ukrainian parliament in order not to let Ukraine ignore the commitments recorded by Contact Group protocols.”

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