The Ukrainian side of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have offered in Minsk to call a New Year’s ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and agreed to make final arrangements via a Skype conference call on Dec. 27 between TCG security subgroup representatives, First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament and Ukraine’s envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group’s humanitarian subgroup Iryna Herashchenko has said.
“The OSCE and Ukraine have proposed, after the end of martial law, in the absence of provocations by Russia and the cessation of acts of aggression, to establish a permanent ceasefire in Donbas before the New Year and Christmas holidays begin. On Dec. 27, the TCG security subgroup will discuss … the possible date of the truce. We agreed about this today at the TCG in Minsk, where the Ukrainian side was represented by Yevhen Marchuk,” Herashchenko said on Facebook on Dec. 19.
She added that the truce is possible only in the absence of provocations and open Russian aggression.
Gerashchenko says if on Dec. 27, during the Skype conference it is possible to confirm de-escalation and agree on the date for establishing the truce, it will be the 18th attempt to declare a ceasefire.
