MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) – A final decision establishing the demarcation line in southeastern Ukraine could be made in the next two-three days, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We expect that in the next two-three days this [demarcation] line will be agreed upon. After that it will be possible to withdraw heavy weaponry on both sides, which, of course, will be a decisive factor in terms of stabilizing the situation," Lavov said in an interview with the Life News TV channel and the Izvestia newspaper.
The Russian Foreign Minister noted that the ceasefire violations both on the part of the Kiev forces and independence fighters in southeastern Ukraine are largely due to the fact that the demarcation line has not been agreed.
"But the work on the final establishment of the separation line is close to completion," Lavrov noted.
Kiev forces started fighting independence supporters in Ukraine's southeastern regions in mid-April, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation in response to the local residents' refusal to recognize the country's new government.
On September 5, a ceasefire agreement was signed between the two sides during a trilateral meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine. On September 19, the Contact Group met again to agree on more details regarding the implementation of the ceasefire.
Among other things, the September 19 memorandum stipulated the creation of a 30-kilometer (approximately 19-mile) buffer zone on the current line of contact between Kiev forces and independence fighters of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR).
On October 11, DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko confirmed that a demarcation agreement had been signed between Ukrainian independence supporters and Kiev authorities and that the demarcation line would pass along the line of contact between the two sides as of September 19.
