The Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Yaşar Halit Çevik, welcomed the beginning, yesterday, of the disengagement of forces and hardware from the Zolote disengagement area.
Additional SMM patrols in the Zolote area, assisted by static cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles, on 29 October observed the launch of flares by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the armed formations, signaling both sides’ readiness to disengage, and subsequently Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel and members of the armed formations exiting the disengagement area, together with their weapons, the OSCE SMM said in its press release.
Mirror disengagement of forces began on site No. 2 in the area of the settlement of Zolote-4 (a village within the town of Zolotoe) at 12:00 on October 29. The disengagement of forces is a prerequisite for holding a meeting in the Normandy format and further resolving of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
