You're reading: Demilitarized zones may be formed in Donbas

MINSK/MOSCOW – The security subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group for Ukraine may consider the formation of demilitarized zones along the Donbas contact line at its next meeting in Minsk, a source from the subgroup told Interfax on Thursday.

“The idea is to assign the notion and status of demilitarized zones to the populated localities outside contact line areas controlled by either side. It is possible that this issue will be raised and discussed at the next meeting of the subgroup,” the source said.

In turn, the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said they were not planning to mount an offensive, in particular, in order to move the contact line.

“There is no question of our offensive,” senior officer of the DPR Defense Ministry Eduard Basurin told Interfax.

Alexander Hug, Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, said earlier that the contact line between the conflicting sides in Donbas would not be changed.