KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2020) Compliance with the ceasefire regime is a basic prerequisite for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which opens the way to the implementation of other provisions of this agreement, the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
The video conference of the Donbas contact group was held earlier in the day. The parties agreed on a ceasefire on the contact line in Donbas starting July 27.
"The regime of compliance with a full and comprehensive ceasefire, if it is observed by the other side, is a basic prerequisite for the implementation of the Minsk agreements and opens way for the implementation of other provisions of these agreements," the statement says.
Kiev handed over lists for the mutual exchange of detainees and expects a reciprocal step from Donetsk and Luhansk, Zelenskyy's office added.
"Ukraine has once again confirmed its readiness to comply with the agreements reached at the December summit in Paris and adherence to the implementation of the Minsk agreements," it also said.
The conflict in Ukraine began in 2014, when the army launched an offensive against the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk after they had proclaimed independence from Kiev. Their decision came in response to what they considered to have been a coup in Kiev that toppled the old government in February of that year.
In February 2015, a landmark agreement on peace in eastern Ukraine was signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, hence the name. It was negotiated by the Normandy quartet, comprised of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. The agreement stipulated a sequence of measures to be taken by Ukraine and the breakaway regions � including an immediate ceasefire and the release of prisoners � to pave the way for sustainable peace.
