President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the office of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, where he met with Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM Yaşar Halit Çevik.
Yaşar Halit Çevik told about the work of the SMM and the current security situation in the JFO area. He also noted progress in disengagement on the delimitation line starting from June 2019. At the moment, dismantling of fortifications is in progress near Zolote-4.
The Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM also noted the restoration of disengagement near Bohdanivka (Petrivske), which is to begin on November 9, 12:00.
“Despite the difficult situation, we have carried out disengagement near Zolote. We have done everything in a timely and safe manner. We are grateful to the military, to the OSCE and to everyone who helped us,” the President of Ukraine emphasized.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that he personally visited the areas where disengagement is planned in order to examine the living conditions of local residents and hear their attitude to disengagement.
“We were in Stanytsia Luhanska. By the end of November the bridge will have been built there. Then we were in Zolote. We see that almost everyone is waiting for disengagement,” he said.
Also, the President of Ukraine stressed that the state authorities were solving the problems of infrastructure, access of ambulances and doctors to local residents in Zolote.
The parties discussed the possibility of admission of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to complicated areas in the territory of Donbas uncontrolled by the Ukrainian authorities and border areas of Ukraine and Russia.
The Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM informed of a reduction in casualties following another truce announcement in July. According to Yaşar Halit Çevik, this is an indication that in the absence of active hostilities, civilians do not suffer losses.
During his visit to the OSCE SMM Office, the President of Ukraine got himself acquainted with the work of the Technical Monitoring Center, which conducts round-the-clock monitoring of the security situation on the delimitation line in the JFO area.