MOSCOW - Russia supports the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission's initiatives to separate the sides, create demilitarized zones and arrange round-the-clock monitoring in the conflict area in the east of Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said.
“The fulfillment of the political aspects of the Minsk Package of Measures, linked with granting special status to Donbas, amnesty, constitutional reform and local elections, is the key to settling [the conflict],” Meshkov said at the opening of the OSCE Annual Security Review Conference in Vienna on June 28. The text of Meshkov’s speech was published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
“We note the complex situation on the contact line. Provocations by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, their taking of ‘gray zones’ and movement towards militant-held positions, as well as the disappearance of military hardware from depots, remain a major problem. We support the SMM’s [OSCE Special Monitoring Mission] initiatives to separate the sides, create demilitarized zones and organize round-the-clock monitoring there, as well as at sites storing weapons subject to withdrawal,” he said.
