You're reading: OSCE calls on Minsk deal signatories to create maps of mine-infested territories

The Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE SMM) insists that maps of mine-infested territories and areas containing unexploded shells in eastern Ukraine should be drawn up.

OSCE SMM Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug told a briefing via Skype from Donetsk on Friday that he and the mission’s head Ertugrul Apakan had returned from the 14th meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine in the Belarusian capital Minsk, where the OSCE SMM continues to take part in discussions on the issue of mine-infested territories as the chair of the Contact Group’s security subgroup.

Progress in this matter would help normalize the situation in terms of safe movement on the ground, he said.

The OSCE SMM is trying to persuade the signatories to the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine that it is necessary to create maps of minefields and areas with unexploded shells, Hug added.