Ukraine, within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on settling the situation in Donbas and at the level of political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four countries, reaffirms its commitment to the agreements of July 22, 2020 on the introduction of a ceasefire regime in Donbas to prevent loss of life, Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has said.
“At the last videoconference of political advisers to the Normandy Four leaders, which took place on March 18, we called for an immediate convening – at any time, in any format – an extraordinary meeting of the TCG security subgroup, at which the parties would confirm that there is a readiness to return to a full-fledged ceasefire regime,” Yermak said in an exclusive blitz interview with Interfax-Ukraine on March 24.
The head of the President’s Office of Ukraine said that the Russian side “refused to participate in the extraordinary meeting of the security subgroup, in turn, the Ukrainian side submitted documents confirming this fact.”
According to Yermak, it is still impossible to say that the ceasefire broke down, “but there is a tendency to escalate the situation due to armed provocations by the illegal armed formations of ORDLO, to which Ukraine is forced to respond pointwise.”
He also said that “most of the deaths of the Ukrainian military recently occurred due to the work of snipers in ORDLO, which should be criminalized.”
“I confirm once again that Ukraine is ready at any time to do everything necessary to prevent loss of our people’s lives,” Yermak said.
