OSCE Permanent Council Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine

VIENNA, January 20 (Sputnik) — The Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) adopted on Tuesday a declaration calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.

The declaration, adopted by 57 OSCE participating states, expressed “serious concern over the military escalation in recent days in eastern Ukraine” and called “for an immediate ceasefire by all sides and the full implementation of the Minsk Protocol of 5 September 2014, and Memorandum of 19 September 2014.”

The Permanent Council, one of the main regular decision-making bodies of the Organization, convenes weekly in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and to make appropriate decisions.

The OSCE Permanent Council convened an emergency video conference on Tuesday, involving OSCE envoy to Ukraine Heidi Tagliavini and chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Ertugrul Apakan.

According to the text of the declaration obtained by RIA Novosti, the OSCE Permanent Council urged all the signatories of the Minsk Protocol to hold a meeting as soon as possible to make progress toward the implementation of the agreements reached on September 5 and 19 last year.

The Permanent Council “expresses its full support to the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini and calls upon all signatories of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum to meet as soon as possible in order to achieve practical progress on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements,” the protocol reads.

The signatories of the Minsk agreements are Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics.

The OSCE Permanent Council also expressed concern over the escalation in eastern Ukraine over the past few days.

Despite a ceasefire deal agreed between independence supporters and Kiev in September 2014, hostilities continue in the Ukrainian eastern regions.

Over the weekend, Kiev shelled residential areas in eastern Ukraine. On Monday, a senior commander of the armed militia in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said that more than 30 civilians, including children, were killed on Sunday in the city of Horlivka in the Donbas region in a series of airstrikes carried out by Ukrainian combat jets.