Russia does not implement its commitments under Minsk Agreements
April 23, 2015
Russia’s aggressive policy has led to death of about 6,000 civilians and over 1,600 military and complete devastation of the Donbas region. Over 1.2 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. Those who stayed are facing a threat to their lives and are deprived of basic living conditions. Since February 15 Ukrainian positions were shelled more than 2500 times, 65 KIA, over 250 WIA.
OSCE SMM to Ukraine visited “DPR” heavy weapons holding areas: "at two other sites none of the weapons previously recorded at the locations by the SMM were present. “DPR” members at one of these sites (where all four previously recorded MLRS Grad were missing) said that the weapons were taken away in preparation for a Victory Day parade on 9 May. At another site, both artillery pieces previously recorded were missing". (Latest from OSCE SMM to Ukraine, 19 April 2015).
In the course of last few days 50 military trucks and 20 armored infantry fighting vehicles with personnel crossed the border checkpoint “Dovzhansky” into the territory of Ukraine, freight train (40 cars) with heavy weaponry spotted in Sverdlovsk (Luhansk region).
Moreover, militants impede safe delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid from Ukraine, foreign states and international organizations.
On March 12, 2015, the mandate of the OSCE observers at the Russian checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk (observation range is only 1 km) was extended until 30 June 2015. Yet, for 4th time, Russia refused to extend OSCE observers’ activities to all Russian border checkpoints along the 300-km segment of the border that is currently out of Ukraine’s control. Russia and its proxies do not allow the SMM to start monitoring the border
Ukraine urges Russia to immediately free Savchenko, Sentsov, Kolchenko and other Ukrainian citizens who are illegally detained for far-fetched charges in the Russian territory.
As militants seize all financial resources that the Ukrainian government used to allocate to the region. As a result of the militants' hostilities, over 1,2 million people out of over 5-million local population have been displaced from their homes in Donbas.
Ukraine is committed to fully implement Minsk Agreements
On March 17, Ukraine’s Parliament passed the Law amending the Law of Ukraine on a special order of local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It establishes that the above law shall enter into force after newly elected local authorities in the said areas start fulfilling their duties.
The Government of Ukraine undertakes efforts to conduct the constitutional reform and ensure decentralization of power. On March 3, 2015 the President of Ukraine signed a decree on the establishment of the Constitutional Commission, which will elaborate amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine.
Assistance is delivered to the affected regions on a regular basis. Necessary amendments have been made to the Law “On Humanitarian Aid” as well as the Tax and Customs Codes of Ukraine to ensure that international aid be cleared swiftly and cannot be used for any other purposes or means. As of July 1, 2014, there were 1,288,000 of pensioners in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A special simplified mechanism was established for ensuring payments to residents of the terrorists-controlled zone. Under this mechanism, they can easily obtain all benefits in any area of Ukraine outside the said zone. Pensions of those who cannot or do not want leave the zone at the moment are nevertheless allocated and can be collected at any time. 920,000 pensioners regularly receive their pensions. Only in 2015, we paid 8,8 billion UAH (over €350 million) to pensioners in Donbas. The Government keeps allocating 100% of pensions and other social benefits to the Donbas residents.
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