Number of ceasefire violations in Donbas decreased by 55% in 2020 – OSCE

Thanks to additional measures to monitor compliance with the ceasefire, the number of ceasefire violations in Donbas in 2020 decreased by 55% compared to the previous year.

EU Permanent Representative to the OSCE Rasa Ostrauskaite said this at a virtual meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) on January 26, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“Last year, the OSCE SMM recorded 153,000 ceasefire violations, including about 46,000 explosions, which is 55% less compared to 2019. The introduction of additional ceasefire measures has brought tangible improvements in the security situation. However, ceasefire violations still occur every day,” Ostrauskaite noted.

She noted that the EU continues to support efforts to resolve the situation in Donbas in the Normandy format and within the Trilateral Contact Group. At the same time, the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) remains very valuable, more than two thirds of which is staffed and funded by the EU countries.

Following agreement reached at a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on July 22, 2020 regarding additional measures to strengthen the ceasefire, from July 27, 2020 to January 2021, the SMM has so far recorded more than 6,300 ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

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