KYIV, 25 June 2020 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Heidi Grau, made the following statement to the press after the regular meetings of the TCG ‎and its Working Groups held through video conferencing:

“The recent meetings of the TCG and its Working Groups were marked by constructive discussions. This is an important stage towards results, but it requires also the sides’ will to take appropriate decisions in order to bring about a settlement.

In this seventh year of conflict, the civilian population on both the sides of the contact line duly expect concrete solutions that would make their everyday life easier.

I regret to say that today the sides did not succeed to agree on the modalities regarding the provision of security guarantees for the preparatory works in view of the simultaneous opening of two additional entry-exit crossing points (ECCPs) near Zolote and Schastya of the Luhansk region.

I welcome the first steps taken to re-open the temporarily closed ECCPs. However, far more efforts are required to facilitate the crossing of the line of contact for civilians in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.

I wish to point out the substantive discussions of the Security Working Group. The participants achieved significant progress in discussing an updated demining plan, as well as with regard to the Addendum to the Framework Decision of the TCG that addresses the disengagement of forces and hardware.

The Working Group took note of incidents that have restricted the activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, as defined by its mandate. Those included regular cases of denial of access, as well as damage to the SMM surveillance cameras near Petrivske and Shyrokyne on June 2 and 22, respectively.

I join the appeal of the representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and the OSCE Secretary General to the sides to ensure the safety of SMM’s technical equipment and as well as its staff, so that the Mission SMM can continue its activities in accordance with its mandate.

The Economic Working Group debated current issues of water supplies across the line of contact, the provision of mobile communications by Vodafone-Ukraine, as well as environmental issues in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine (CADLR).

Besides the topic of additional ECCPs, the Humanitarian Working Group considered the issue of mutual release and exchange of conflict-related detainees.

The Political Working Group had a comprehensive and substantive discussion on certain aspects of the implementation of the ‘Steinmeier formula’ in Ukrainian legislation, as well as of the legal formalisation of CADLR’s special status after local elections are held in these territories as specified by the Minsk Agreements.”