Martin Sajdik / Photo from UNIAN

Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Martin Sajdik has welcomed the disengagement of Ukrainian troops and weapons near the village of Stanytsia Luhanska in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

"I sincerely welcome the start of the process of the disengagement of forces and hardware at Stanytsia Luhanska. Let me express my deep appreciation to the sides for having taken the necessary decisions for this important development," he said in a statement posted on the OSCE's website on June 26.

"I urge them to take all the efforts for completing this process successfully," he said.

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Read alsoDisengagement in action: Ukrainian troops pulling back near Stanytsia Luhanska in Donbas

He also thanked the staff of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and personally to the Chief Monitor, Ambassador Yaşar Halit Çevik, as well as his deputy, Mark Etherington, for their active involvement in the disengagement process.

"I hope that the successful implementation of this operation at Stanytsia Luhanska will serve as a catalyst for further steps towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, and, in particular, a recommitment to a robust, sustainable and permanent ceasefire," he said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian troops on June 26 withdrew from its positions near the Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint in Donbas as part of disengagement under the Minsk peace agreements.