Special Representative of the OSCE's Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Ambassador Heidi Grau says that TCG peace talks on Donbas have reached an impasse.
She announced this during a UN Security Council meeting on the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, according to an UNIAN correspondent. The event was broadcast on the UN's website.
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In the first months of 2020, the TCG political group made significant efforts to come to a common position in the negotiations, she said.
At the same time, Grau noted that negotiations within the TCG political subgroup had stalled since August 2020, because "some participants demand that the Ukrainian parliament cancel the resolution on local elections for the talks to continue."
The OSCE representative recalled that in order to unblock the talks, the TCG participants proposed to develop a joint action plan for the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
"This is a very difficult task, unfortunately. Discussion in the Trilateral Contact Group is still at an impasse. Therefore, I am grateful that the political advisers to the Normandy Four [leaders] have joined the process and are actively looking for ways out of the impasse," she added.
The official also drew attention to an increase in the number of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine.
"In recent weeks, there has been an alarming trend of ceasefire violations in Donbas. However, the number of the violations is significantly lower than in the first half of last year," she stated.
What is more, Grau noted insufficient progress in humanitarian landmine action in Donbas.
"It is worrying that progress on humanitarian and security issues is not being made for political reasons," she said.
Reference
- The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the Peaceful Settlement of the Situation in Eastern Ukraine is an authorized group of representatives from Ukraine, the OSCE, and Russia, which was formed as a means to facilitate a diplomatic solution to the war in Donbas, the east of Ukraine.
- The Ukrainian delegation is now led by first president of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk.
