LUGANSK, October 9 (Lugansk Media Centre) – A group of OSCE SMM members has headed to the Ukrainian territory in the Zolotoye disengagement area to clarify the situation as Kiev forces still have not fired white signal flare to indicate their readiness for pull-back, said LPR People’s Militia command acting chief of staff Colonel Mikhail Filiponenko.
In accordance with the procedure LPR People's Militia fired white signal flare at 12 p.m. to notify the Ukrainian side that it is ready to take steps to disengage forces.
"Esad Humo, the head of the Lugansk SMM team, headed to the Ukrainian side to clarify if they are ready to disengage forces," Filiponenko said.
Earlier, the LPR Office at the JCCC informed the OSCE about the situation in the Zolotoye disengagement area.
LPR and DPR representatives at a meeting in Minsk in September 2016 initialled a framework agreement on partial pullback of forces in Donbass, that was also signed by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and OSCE. The document provides for three security areas around Zolotoye, Stanitsa Luganskaya and Petrovskoe (DPR territory). The disengagement has been completed in all three areas by now; however, Kiev forces deploy manpower and hardware in Zolotoye and Petrovskoye areas in violation of the agreements.
The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements was adopted by the Contact Group on Ukraine on February 12, 2015 and supported by member states of the Normandy Four (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France). The UN Security Council approved the document by Resolution 2202 and called upon all the sides to ensure full implementation of the Package of Measures.
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.
