Urgent action needed to prevent humanitarian and environmental disaster in Donbas – Kurz

His opinion was published by Politico portal.

"Urgent action is needed to prevent a humanitarian and environmental disaster in Donbas," Kurz stressed.

The OSCE chairman says that Ukraine is now suffering through a war that is poisoning relations between Donbas and the rest of Ukraine, polluting the political climate between Kyiv and Moscow and tainting the relationship between Russia and countries around the world.

The conflict also has the potential to create pollution of a very real kind — as continued fighting threatens chlorine storage facilities, chemical plants, metallurgical factories, hazardous waste storage sites, and coal mines.

"The situation is a ticking time bomb," the politician noted.

The Austrian minister believes that all parties in the conflict need to put aside politics and focus on the fate of the people in this region. That is why Austria’s chairmanship of the OSCE is calling for a disaster risk reduction initiative for eastern Ukraine. The Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) has taken up this approach and will discuss it in its upcoming meetings.

"To make peace in eastern Ukraine, the parties need to stop shooting. A good place to start would be around critical infrastructure," Kurz said.

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