The special representative of the OSCE in the Trilateral contact group on Ukraine Martin Sajdik concerned about a sharp increase in casualties among the civilian population of Donbass, he condemns the violations by the parties of the Minsk agreements on the inadmissibility of the use of heavy weapons.
“It is very sad that the number of deaths among civilians during the year increased by 120%,” said Sidik journalists on Wednesday in Minsk, showing the corresponding graph.
According to him, “this is the result of the continued use of heavy weapons and delaying demining”.
Sidik said that the data provided by the office of the Supreme Commissariat of the UN high Commissioner for human rights confirmed the report of Special monitoring mission of the OSCE.
“I would like to note that 85% of all violations (the use of heavy weapons – Ed.) occurs in three zones: Avdeevka, Yasynuvata, Mariupol and Svetlodarsk” he said.
According to him, “this means that, in principle, with the good will of the parties to refrain from such armed conflicts, because obviously where it all happens”.
“All this constitutes a clear violation of the Minsk agreements and it is absolutely not acceptable,” said Sidik.
He condemned this development and urged all parties to the conflict to respect human life, to respect their obligations under international law and to protect civilians on both sides of the contact line.
According to the special representative, on these issues, focused working group on security. “It has been repeatedly observed that the use of prohibited weapons must not go unpunished”, – stressed he.
Sidik also said that members of this subgroup presented their proposals to identify new sites for the breeding of forces and means. He noted that this issue will be discussed in the future.
