MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The ceasefire agreement was reached between Ukraine’s conflicting sides during a Contact Group meeting in August. The Trilateral Contact Group, which includes representatives from Kiev, Donbass, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), hold regular meetings in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, aimed at facilitating a diplomatic resolution to the armed conflict in Ukraine’s southeast.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Moscow was expecting Kiev to back the ceasefire with concrete steps in drafting and adopting laws on a special status of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) in Ukraine’s southeast, as well as on amnesty and local elections in Donbass.
Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in Minsk. Despite the fact that the deal stipulated a full ceasefire in Donbass, violations both on the part of Kiev forces and local militia have been reported.
