Ukraine and Russia have agreed on a draft schedule for the gradual withdrawal of troops from the territory of Donbas, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine has reported.
“The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission met with Ukrainian and Russian leaders at the joint center for control and coordination, they said they had agreed on a draft schedule for the gradual withdrawal of troops,” reads the report, posted on the website of the OSCE.
The draft document, signed at the end of the meeting, foresees three stages of ceasefire (two days), the withdrawal of heavy weapons (five days) and the disengagement of forces in the contact line, according to the Minsk memorandum (21 days).
The report stated that earlier the discussion of the plan started with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Poliovy, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said in response to a question from journalists at a press conference in Kyiv on Saturday, Nov. 15 that this statement had been made by the OSCE representatives involved in the work of a joint contact group made up of Russian and Ukrainian military officials, but “these are so far only preliminary agreements, and they have not yet been endorsed by the parties.”
Kyiv welcomes any contacts that could help stop firing and achieve peace and hopes that a positive trend toward this will continue, Poliovy said.
