NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praised on Wednesday the beginning of troop and hardware disengagement near the settlement of Zolote in Donbas
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th October, 2019) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praised on Wednesday the beginning of troop and hardware disengagement near the settlement of Zolote in Donbas.The long-awaited disengagement of forces by Kiev and Donbas militias started on Tuesday near Zolote, with the Ukrainian authorities expecting the process to take three days.
"We welcome all efforts to reduce tensions, to withdraw forces and to make sure that we have a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. We have seen some progress in Stanytsia Luhanska and we welcome also other efforts to follow that example," Stoltenberg said at a press conference with the Ukrainian vice prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration in Kiev.
He stressed that there was still a "long way to go" to settle the Donbas conflict given continued ceasefire violations.
The NATO chief also lauded the "renewed energy" of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "try to find a peaceful solution" and voiced the alliance's support for these efforts. At the same, Stoltenberg claimed that "Russia has a special responsibility to implement the Minsk agreements."
Donbas, an area with a predominantly Russian-speaking population, has been engulfed in conflict since 2014. Back then, the Ukrainian authorities unleashed a military operation against the self-proclaimed republics in the region that refused to recognize the new government in Kiev, which came to power after what they considered to be a coup.
Kiev and a number of Western countries continue accusing Russia of meddling in Ukraine's affairs, including the conflict in the country's east. Russia, in turn, has repeatedly stressed that it is a ceasefire guarantor nation under the Minsk agreements just like France and Germany and not a party to the conflict.
