LPR stops interacting with Ukraine at JCCC - People’s Militia

Military&Defence 

The Lugansk People’s Republic Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) has fully suspended interaction with Ukraine until the latter has returned the captured LPR Office representative Andrey Kosyak, LPR People's Militia spokesman Ivan Filiponenko said.

“At present, the LPR Office at the JCCC has fully stopped interaction with Ukraine until the return of the LPR officer,” Filiponenko said.

“The LPR militia urges international observer and human rights organizations to pay close attention to criminal actions by Ukraine and force Ukrainian armed formations to return the illegally held JCCC LPR representative, conduct a thorough probe into the incident and hold the culprits responsible,” he said.

A Ukrainian army special operations group captured representative of the LPR Office at the JCCC Andrey Kosyak in the Zolotoye security zone on October 13. The Ukrainain delegation in the Contact Group claimed that “the LPR officers at the JCCC were reconnoitering abandoned Ukrainian troops positions under the guise of mine clearance.” The LPR demanded that Kiev immediately release Kosyak. LPR Head Leonid Pasechnik said that further dialogue with Kiev within the Minsk format made no sense until it had returned the LPR representative in the JCCC.

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The UN Security Council approved the document by Resolution No 2202 of February 17, 2015 and called upon the parties to ensure its implementation.

The document provides for comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, starting a dialog on reconstruction of social and economic ties between Kiev and Donbass. It also envisages carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine providing for decentralization and adopting permanent legislation on a special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

To facilitate the work of the Contact Group, four working groups were set up under its aegis to deal with issues of security, politics, return of internally displaced people and refuges, as well as with social, humanitarian, economic and rehabilitation issues. *i*s

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