Independent civil society organizations from Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Russian Federation and France that are united within the international platform CivilM+ encourage the Normandy Four to discuss, with no delays, the deterioration of the situation in the east of Ukraine that took place on 18 February 2020.

To guarantee the ceasefire and to continue the process of military disengagement, all parties must abide by the agreements that were reached five years ago in Minsk and reconfirmed during the Normandy Four summit in December last year.

Considering the parties’ commitment to adhere to the Minsk agreements, all allegations of their violations should be documented for future investigation. It is essential to improve the monitoring mechanisms in eastern Ukraine and to give clear answers on what was the reason behind the escalation of the hostilities. Protecting civilian population in the region should remain a priority for all the parties to the armed conflict.

Civil society organizations within CivilM+ continue to inform the governments and the public in their respective countries about the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, to implement projects in the areas of peacebuilding, dialogue and human rights, and to contribute to the peaceful conflict-resolution in Donbas.

Signatories

Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (Ukraine)

Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (Ukraine)

‘Citizen and Army’ (Russian Federation)

‘Don Women’, Fund to promote the development of civil society and human rights (Russian Federation)

DRA e.V. – German-Russian Exchange (Germany)

European Citizens’ Assembly (France)

Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland)

Human rights center ‘Memorial’ (Russian Federation)

MEMORIAL Deutschland (Germany)

Mr. Wilfried Jilge, independent expert on eastern Europe, historian (Germany)