The United States Embassy in Kyiv says it welcomes the completion of the disengagement of forces in the area of Zolote, urging the Russian Federation to withdraw all of its forces from eastern Ukraine.
"We welcome the completion of withdrawal of forces and hardware at Zolote and commend President Zelenskyy and his team for their efforts to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine in a manner that restores and respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," reads the statement posted on the Embassy Facebook page.
"We call on Russia to fully implement the Minsk agreements and withdraw all of its forces from eastern Ukraine," diplomats stressed.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on Nov 1, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, said the date of the start of disengagement in Petrivske would be revised due to the enemy shelling of the area Oct 30.
On the same day, the Minister said that the disengagement efforts in Zolote had been completed and that the territory was absolutely safe and remained under the control of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
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On Nov 3, the process began of demining and dismantling the demilitarized zone.
The Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said demining near Zolote-4 would last until Nov 9.
On Aug 26, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov named the conditions Russia set for the Normandy Four leaders to meet. Among them was the disengagement of forces near Stanytsia Luhanska, Petrivske and Zolote, as well as fixation of the Steinmeier formula of Donbas settlement "in the legal sense."
