You're reading: Russian envoy to OSCE wants prompt creation of demilitarized zones on contact line in Donbas

MOSCOW - It is necessary to separate the forces of the parties to the conflict in Donbas and create demilitarized zones there as soon as possible to relieve the tensions in eastern Ukraine, Russian envoy to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich said on July 29.

“The first step to de-escalating the situation should be prompt approval in the contact group of the parameters for separating the forces and the creation of demilitarized zones on the contact line. Simultaneously, it is necessary to provide political safety guarantees to residents of southeastern Ukraine,” Lukashevich said at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.

“This envisages the coordination between Kyiv and representatives of some areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of permanent legislation on the special status of these areas and amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on decentralization,” the Russian diplomat said.

“The next step towards normalization should be the development of military and political confidence-building and security measures. From a military viewpoint, such a measure can be the placement in the demilitarized zones of OSCE SMM observers, withdrawal of equipment and weapons to warehouses, and creation around these warehouses of round-the-clock SMM observation posts, the development and enactment of the mechanism used by every party to consider military incidents with compulsory prosecution of the culprits,” he said.

Lukashevich said it is important from a political viewpoint in accordance with the package of measures to ensure pardon and amnesty by introducing a law banning the prosecution and punishment of people in connection with the events that earlier took place in some areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and also the release and exchange of all hostages and illegally held persons according to the ‘all for all’ principle.

“We have to say that the work done on most tracks in the contact group is currently stalled. Kyiv is not taking any real steps on the political track, citing tensions along the contact line, which it is provoking. We are getting the impression that the war in Donbas is a convenient pretext that can be easily used to justify failures in domestic policy and cover the inability of the Ukrainian administration to fulfill the obligations they assumed in Minsk,” the diplomat said.

In the meantime, “the situation on the contact line is now deteriorating, the risk of resumption of large-scale military action is increasing,” he said. “We are hoping that the Ukrainian capital will hear the call made by the UN secretary-general to ensure a ceasefire in all conflicts for the period of the Olympic Games,” Lukashevich said.