Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation Command Says UK Defense Secretary Visited Donbas

Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation Command Says UK Defense Secretary Visited Donbas

UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has visited the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas and has studied the situation in the area, the press center of the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said on Wednesday.

KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2018) UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has visited the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas and has studied the situation in the area, the press center of the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said on Wednesday.

The JFO's press center said that Williamson had met with JFO Commander Serhiy Nayev in the city of Kramatorsk, where the Donetsk civil-military administration is headquartered. Nayev briefed Williamson on the situation in Donbas as well as on the measures taken to stabilize it.

"Then, the JFO Commander informed the important foreign guest on the situation in the zone of action of one of the [JFO] teams in the process of field operations. The state secretary visited, in particular, the front line, where he communicated in person with the JFO troops ... After [the visit to the] front line, the commander briefed UK partners on the work of one of the EECPs [entry and exit checkpoints], where he went into detail on the work of the checkpoints at the contact line," the press center's statement, posted on Facebook, read.

Nayev and Williamson also discussed a number of humanitarian initiatives, aimed at recovering essential infrastructure in Donbas, the statement read.

Williamson thanked Nayev for the trip to Donbas and announced that London was going to provide assistance to Kiev, the press center added.

Since 2014, the Ukrainian government has been in a state of armed conflict with the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, located in Donbas, with the tensions caused by the republics' move to proclaim independence from Kiev, refusing to accept the new government, which they claimed had come to power in a coup. Although the Minsk peace accords, set to put end to the conflict, were signed in February 2015, tension continue as the warring parties continue accusing each other of breaching the ceasefire.