Deputy head of OSCE SMM calls for signing of new agreement between conflict parties in Donbas for settlement of …
Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), believes it is desirable to sign a new agreement between the conflict parties in eastern Ukraine next year.
Hug told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday that it is quite clear what should be done, namely, to outline all existing problems in the agreement and sign it.
Hug recalled that ceasefire breaches, the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements, obstruction of freedom of travel of SMM monitors, and problems with the crossing of the contact line by civilians were registered throughout the past year.
According to earlier reports, the agreements on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine reached in Minsk on February 12, 2015 expire on December 31. However, the parties agreed to prolong the agreements for 2016 in a phone conversation on Wednesday in the ‘Normandy format’ between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin.