KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2020) The ceasefire in Donbas is not stable and its maintenance depends on future negotiations, the first deputy chief of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov said on Friday.
On July 27, new measures to maintain the ceasefire, which include a blanket ban on deploying military equipment or using drones in reconnaissance, sabotage or offensive missions in sensitive locations, entered into force. The sides also agreed for a system of holding ceasefire violators accountable.
"Unfortunately, it is still a dangerous territory out there, because this ceasefire is unstable. We are implementing it only because of there are very subtle negotiations going on and evert effort done by the negotiators right now, including the request of [commission head Leonid] Kravchuk to the [Verkhovna] Rada [to reconsider the decision on local elections] is one of the attempts to preserve the ceasefire," Reznikov said during a Q&A session with the government at parliament.
In April 2014, the Ukrainian government launched an offensive against the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, which claimed independence after what they considered to be a coup in Ukraine two months earlier. Prospects for peace have been discussed in various forms, including during the meetings of the Contact Group in Minsk, which, since September 2014, has already adopted three documents regulating steps to de-escalate the conflict.
The Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on July 15, made a decision regarding the October 25 local elections, which did not allow for holding elections within the territories of Donbas that are not under Kiev's direct control.
