Contact group on Ukraine signs ceasefire implementation memorandum, --(MINSK MEMORANDUM, 20.09.14)

After six hours of nighttime talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk the Contact Group on Ukraine has signed a memorandum on measures to implement the ceasefire agreement, concluded in principle on September 5.
As Ukraine’s former president, Leonid Kuchma, said after the talks the memorandum implied “the termination of the use of weapons is considered comprehensive.”
Also, he said that under the document the conflicting parties’ forces should be left at their positions they were holding as at September 19, and a ban on the use of all weapons and offensive operations effected within 24 hours.

“The memorandum also requires the pullout of all weapons with a calibre of more than 100 millimeters to a distance of no less than 15 kilometres on each side,” Kuchma said.
The memorandum also imposes a ban on planting mines, flights by combat aviation and drones except for OSCE aircraft.

The OSCE was commissioned to monitor the implementation of the achieved agreements. Its observers will be placed along the whole disengagement line.

The contact group agreed that the process of exchanging prisoners of war will continue. According to the Russian ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, since the conclusion of September 5 truce the sides exchanged 120 men each.

The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko has said the question whether the Donetsk and Lugansk republics would remain parts of Ukraine was not discussed. He added the issued remained on the agenda, though.
A twenty-four-hour deadline has been set for implementing the just-agreed arrangements.
en.itar-tass.com
20/9/14
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Related:

• Ukraine's government and pro-Russia rebels have agreed a memorandum on a peace plan for the eastern conflict.(20/9/14)

• Ukraine, pro-Russian rebels agree on ceasefire (from 18:00, September 5) / Statement of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko

• MINSK MEMORANDUM

1. Ceasefire is to be considered bilateral.

2. Military elements and military formations shall be stopped at their contact line as of September 19.

3. Usage of all kinds of weapons and offensive actions are prohibited.

4. Within 24 hours after the approval of this memorandum weapons with a calibre of more than 100 millimeters shall be moved at least 15 kilometers away from the contact line on both sides, including from the residential areas, which would create an opportunity to establish a 30-kilometers buffer zone.

5. Deployment of heavy weapons and heavy equipment in the region confined by the residential areas [Kuchma did not specify which areas are listed in the memorandum] is prohibited.

6. Placing of mine barriers at the border of the buffer zone is prohibited. Mine barriers that were placed earlier within the buffer zone shall be removed.

7. Flights of operational aircrafts and foreign aerial vehicles except for the vehicles of the OSCE over the buffer zone are prohibited.

8. In the ceasefire zone the OSCE monitoring mission, consisting of the group of the organization's observers shall be deployed within 24 hours after the approval of this memorandum. It is desirable that the above mentioned zone shall be divided into sectors. The number of the sectors' borders shall be negotiated in the course of the preparation to the work of the OSCE monitoring mission's group of observers.

9. All the foreign armed groups, military equipment, as well as fighters and mercenaries shall withdraw from the Ukrainian territory under the supervision of the OSCE.

http://www.ellanodikis.net/2014/09/parties-at-minsk-talks-agree-on.html