The Ukrainian side insisted on demilitarizing Debaltseve, Donetsk region, at the Normandy Four talks in Berlin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
“We have four new zones subject to disengagement. And one of these four zones, and I have put it clearly at the ‘Normandy format’ meeting, should be Debaltseve,” the president said in an interview with the Ukrainian television channels aired on Sunday evening.
These positions should be stipulated in a roadmap, he also said. “The area, which had been clearly determined [in the Minsk agreements], remains in force, and this gives us serious grounds to insist on Debaltseve being a demilitarized zone where the disengagement should take place,” Poroshenko said.
He also underlined the importance of completing the separation of forces and hardware in the three sectors near the populated localities of Zolote, Petrivske and Stanytsia Luhanska. “Ukraine will not give away a single sector of the village, […] therefore, the disengagement regime is advantageous to us,” Poroshenko also said.
