Trilateral Contact Group to meet on Jan 26

According to Andrii Kostin, acting first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, the Ukrainian delegation is still committed to the need to comply with ceasefire measures agreed in the TCG in July 2020 and will make every effort to de-escalate the situation on the line of contact.

At a meeting on December 22, the TCG participants supported the need to comply with the agreement of July 2020 on measures to strengthen the ceasefire in Donbas.

On the evening of December 23, the Joint Forces Operation headquarters said that Russian mercenaries had committed three ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine, two of them involving weapons banned under the Minsk agreements.

On December 28, it emerged that the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG proposed holding an extraordinary meeting on December 29 over the breach of the ceasefire. According to Kostin, this proposal was rejected.

According to the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, at a regular meeting on December 22, the parties reached a common understanding of the need to resume the ceasefire.

Journalist Serhii Harmash, a representative of the ORDO (non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region) in the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, said the Russian side called "inexpedient" the idea of holding an extraordinary meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group proposed by Ukraine.

Photo credit: TCG, Facebook

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