DONETSK (Sputnik) — Russia's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation Boris Gryzlov on Wednesday said the group coordinated a new ceasefire along the separation line in Donbass for the duration of the Easter holidays starting on April 1.
Kiev authorities have voiced readiness to implement the ceasefire regime as well.
"We are ready to fulfill the obligations that we undertake, and we are trying to fully observe them," Basurin said.
The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.
In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states, the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.
