Both sides of the conflict in Donbas do not comply with the provisions of the Minsk memorandum dated September 19, 2014, which contains an agreement not to move their positions closer to each other, Principal Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Alexander Hug has said.
“Article 2 of the Minsk Memorandum, in particular, calls on the sides to maintain their positions as of September 19, 2014. Effectively, the sides have agreed not to move their positions closer to each other and to the contact line. The problem is, the sides do not adhere to the agreements, and in particular, to Article 2 of the Memorandum,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on April 21.
Hug said he understands the fears some people have. “Disengagement or even just maintaining their September 21 positions is not without risk. Vacuums are filled, and if one side doesn’t do it, the fear is that the other will. Such an approach, however, is not conducive to maintaining a sustainable ceasefire,” he stressed.
In his words, with every move forward, there is a reaction.
“Soon there is a spiral of violence that sees the sides relentlessly punishing each other. Sometimes there is a tactical or strategic rationale at play. But more often, it appears that the violence becomes an end in itself. A sort of cancerous growth that consumes all before,” the deputy chief monitor added.
