The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Serbia`s and Austria`s Foreign Ministers Ivica Dacic and Sebastian Kurz, as well as the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier called on all parties in Donbas to cease hostilities and the use of heavy weapons.
”The members of the OSCE Troika expressed strong concern over reports on increasing numbers of ceasefire violations and the presence of heavy weapons in the security zone in the east of Ukraine,” according to a joint statement following an OSCE Troika meeting in Berlin on Tuesday.
The ministers underlined that renewed hostilities and the return of proscribed weapons as reported by the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) are in breach of the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements and called on all signatories of the Minsk agreements to honor their commitments.
The Ministers and Secretary General Zannier called upon the sides to fully ensure safety and free and unrestricted access of the OSCE monitors throughout the area of conflict, including to the Ukrainian-Russian State border in accordance with the SMM-mandate and the Minsk agreements.
They underlined that incidents against SMM monitors, as reported by the Mission in recent days, are unacceptable and that those responsible for threatening and using force against civilian monitors must be held accountable. They assured the SMM and its Chief Monitor, Ambassador Apakan, as well as the Special Representative of the CiO, Ambassador Sajdik, of their full support.
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