And #Russia-backed separatists still block humanitarian aid, placing countless lives at risk https://t.co/d04ZLcgm2Q pic.twitter.com/HeOjsy8ye1
— U.S. Mission to OSCE (@usosce) November 6, 2015
Response to Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson in Office in Ukraine Ambassador Martin Sajdik and OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Chief Monitor Ertugrul Apakan on November 4, 2015 :
“Separatists are still threatening to walk away from their political commitments under Minsk and are blocking humanitarian aid that places countless lives at risk.”
“In the last week we’ve seen a worrying uptick in violence. There have been reports of small groups of Russian-led separatist fighters coming across the line of contact to stage attacks on Ukrainian positions, resulting in new casualties.”
“Unfortunately, the separatists still refuse to implement their political commitments under Minsk. Alexander Zakarchenko, leader of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic,” publicly rejected Ukrainian political parties participating in elections held in separatist-controlled Donetsk. Likewise, Igor Plotnitsky, head of the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic,” made a similar statement when he said elections in Luhansk “will have nothing to do with Ukraine.”
“Russia-backed separatists block SMM access in Luhansk, jam the SMM’s UAVs, and have not permitted the SMM to open more than one forward patrol base on territory they control. These actions raise doubts as to whether combined Russian-separatist forces are truly committed to resolving this conflict via the Minsk agreements.”
