DONETSK, September 8. /TASS/: The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) suggests the Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine hold an extraordinary meeting on September 9 in a bid to deescalate the situation along the contact line, DPR’s Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Tuesday.
"We suggest the Contact Group hold an extraordinary meeting at noon tomorrow, on September 9 to pass a decision of a joint inspection involving representatives of the DPR and Ukraine to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center with assistance of the OSCE monitors to record violations committed by the Ukrainian army which moved its position near the settlement of Shumy," the Donetsk News Agency quoted her as saying.
According to Niknorova, a corresponding letter has been referred to the European security watchdog OSCE. She stressed that the DPR has convincing evidence of Kiev’s conducting engineering works which are prohibited by the additional ceasefire control measures.
In her words, the republic has repeatedly referred to the OSCE evidence of the Ukrainian side’s violations but no due reaction has followed. "Members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission have a possibility to carry out an objective, transparent and unbiased monitoring of all the episodes of violation of the agreements reached in Minsk. Moreover, it must do it. We hope that both the Ukrainian side and the mediators in the talks understand the importance of preserving the fragile truce that has been reached, including with their assistance, and will do their best to prevent a new spiral of the conflict escalation," she stressed.
On Monday, the DPR’s foreign ministry called on Kiev to liquidate trenches along the contact line before 22:00 local time on September 8 to spare the republic of the necessity to take last-ditch measures and open fire to destroy these engineering structures.
Earlier, DPR’s head, Denis Pushilin, issued an order to the republic’s servicemen to open fire to destroy Ukraine’s engineering structures along the contact line near the settlement of Shumy that were mounted in violation of the agreements. Pushilin called on the Ukrainian command to pull out soldiers from the area befor 08:00 local time on September 7. The office of the Ukrainian president said on Sunday the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission had found no changes in the position of the Ukrainian army near Shumy at the contact line in Donbass.
