MINSK, 31 May 2018 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG ‎and its Working Groups in Minsk on 30 May 2018:

“I have repeatedly stressed that one of the main tasks of the Trilateral Contact Group is to ensure the security and decent living conditions for civilians in the conflict zone. With this regard, I would like to draw your attention to some alarming trends.

For the last two months, the number of civilian casualties has dramatically increased as compared to early 2018. Among them, child fatalities are of particular concern. The day before yesterday a 15-year-old girl was killed near Toretsk as a result of a mortar attack. On 22 May, a 14-year-old boy was killed and three children were injured in Debaltseve as a result of a grenade explosion in a bus.

This is unacceptable. The warm season has started and school holidays are ahead. With this in mind, I call on the sides to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties and pay particular attention to the safety of children.

The situation around civilian infrastructure remains tense as well.

As you know, the situation around the Donetsk Filtering Station (DFS) was discussed at the previous TCG meetings. Unfortunately, despite the sides’ security guarantees and the reinforced patrolling of OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, further ceasefire violations have occurred near the DFS.

I also want to mention two recent incidents: the shelling of medical facilities in the government-controlled Toretsk and the undermining of Shterovsky road bridge in certain areas of Luhansk region.

In this regard, the security of civilians and critical infrastructure in the conflict zone and in particular, in the area of the Donetsk Filtering Station, were the focus of today’s discussions in the Working Group on Security. At the same time, the Coordinator of the Working Group, Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, stressed that the withdrawal of heavy weapons, especially from the populated areas, is a key prerequisite for the cessation of fire in the conflict zone.

The Working Group on Economic Issues continued to discuss further steps to be taken to recover and improve mobile communication of Vodafone-Ukraine in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR). The current issues related to water deliveries in the supply systems “Karbonyt” and “Voda Donbassa” as well as pension payments and environmental safety were duly considered, too.

The Working Group on Humanitarian Issues continued its discussion on the exchange of detainees and the conditions of their detention, as well as on the issue of missing persons.

The participants of the Working Group also discussed the improvement of conditions for crossing the contact line via checkpoints, in particular in Stanytsia Luhanska.

The Working Group on Political Issues continued to discuss issues related to the sequence of implementation of the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’ and the modalities of the local elections in CADR and CALR”.

Source: OSCE