Poroshenko orders signing of deal on 30km buffer zone in Donbas, withdrawing tanks, artillery
KYIV. July 22 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has instructed the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group to sign an agreement on a buffer zone along the line of contact in Donbas.
"I have instructed the Ukrainian representatives in the Trilateral Contact Group to immediately sign an agreement with the OSCE and the Russian side, which is a party to the Trilateral Contact Group, to guarantee the establishment of a 30-kilometer buffer zone along the line of contact and to withdraw artillery that is still left there, withdraw tanks, and withdraw mortars, making the constant shelling impossible," Poroshenko said when introducing the new head of the Luhansk regional administration in Severodonetsk on Wednesday.
Poroshenko called for doing anything possible so that no shots are fired in Severodonetsk, Rubizhne, Lysychansk, or Popasna. "Ukraine's proposal was accepted yesterday in Minsk at our diplomats' and the OSCE's insistence," starting "the countdown for withdrawing all heavy weapons under the OSCE's control," he said.
The president said he hoped that this would be "the real start of the real withdrawal" of heavy hardware, providing preconditions for this territory's political and economic reintegration with Ukraine.
It was reported earlier that the Trilateral Contact Group on settling the situation in Donbas met in Minsk on July 21. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ivica Dacic, who took part in the meeting, said the participants had agreed upon the text of a document on withdrawing weapons smaller than 100mm in caliber.