The process of disengaging the forces and military hardware in a sector of the contact line near Stanytsia Luhanska envisaged by the Minsk Agreements is complete, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) said.
“On 30 June, the SMM received a letter from the armed formations in non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk region notifying that they had completed disengagement in the agreed disengagement area near Stanytsia Luhanska,” the OSCE SMM said in a spot report on June 30.
“On 29 June, the SMM received a Note Verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine notifying that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had completed disengagement in the agreed disengagement area near Stanytsia Luhanska.
The situation is calm and stable. The SMM will continue to actively monitor and report on the situation,” according to the mission’s report.
As reported, the OSCE SMM had observed the beginning of the disengagement process near Stanytsia Luhanska, which has been disrupted over 80 times since 2016, at noon on June 26.
The Framework Decision on disengagement of forces and military hardware in Donbas was signed by representatives of Ukraine, the LPR, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Russia and the OSCE in September 2016. The document implies a ceasefire, the pullback of heavy weaponry from the contact line, the beginning of the dialogue to restore socio-economic ties between Kyiv and Donbas, and the Ukrainian constitutional reform seeking decentralization and enforcing “the special status of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
