You're reading: Trilateral Contact Group calls for absolute, open-ended ceasefire in Donbas starting September 1

The participants in a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the situation in Donbas in Minsk on August 26, including representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR and LPR), agreed on the necessity to fully stop firing in the conflict zone starting September 1, 2016, Darka Olifer, a spokesperson for former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Kyiv's official representative in the group, said on Facebook on August 26.

“The Trilateral Contact Group, including representatives of the certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, declared the necessity of an absolute open-ended ceasefire in Donbas starting September 1, 2016. A new academic year will start this day,” Olifer said following a Trilateral Contact Group meeting in Minsk on August 26.

More than 150,000 children should go to school and kindergarten in the Kyiv-controlled part of Donbas alone, she said.

“We insist that all children in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, regardless of where they live, have the right to care and security. This is precisely why Ukraine insists on a full ceasefire. Ukrainian is consistently implementing the Minsk Agreements and is calling on the Russian Federation and the certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not to violate their obligations and stop firing starting September 1, 2016,” Olifer said.