Russia's ambassador highlights peace agreement

Victor Smirnov, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Bahrain, has expressed hope that “all people of good will support the sincere efforts to establish peace in Ukraine.”
Shedding light on the peace agreement reached by the parties involved in the negotiations, he said that the participants signed a protocol on the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and agreed on the peace plan. 

“Among these accords, which entered into force in the evening of September 5, 2014, there are the immediate ceasefire, the exchange of prisoners, deliveries of humanitarian aid and withdrawal of heavy weapons under the supervision of the OSCE,” the ambassador said. 

“Moscow welcomed the signing of the protocol as the result of the consultations of the Contact Group on the implementation of the initiatives of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Moscow believes that all the provisions of the document and the agreements reached by the parties should be carried out carefully and strictly observed, as well as the negotiation process for the subsequent settlement of the crisis in Ukraine continued,” he said in a statement to BNA. 

The implementation of the agreements will help stop the killing of civilians, contribute to returning refugees to their homes, restoring damaged social infrastructure in the east of Ukraine and establishing future peace and order based on justice and respect for the rights of citizens, Ambassador Smirnov added.

“The meeting of the Contact Group took place just after the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his plan in order to stop the bloodshed and stabilise the situation in southeast Ukraine,” he said. 

“The seven point plan stipulates an end to active offensive operations by armed forces, armed units and militia groups in southeast Ukraine, the withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces units to a distance that would make it impossible to fire on populated areas using artillery and all types of multiple launch rocket systems and allowing for full and objective international monitoring of compliance with the ceasefire and monitoring of the situation in the safe zone created by the ceasefire.

“The other points are excluding all use of military aircraft against civilians and populated areas in the conflict zone, organizing the exchange of individuals detained by force on an ‘all for all’ basis without any preconditions, opening humanitarian corridors for refugees and for delivering humanitarian cargoes to towns and populated areas in Donetsk and Lugansk regions and making it ossible for repair brigades to come to damaged settlements in order to repair and rebuild social facilities and life-supporting infrastructure and help the regions to prepare for the winter,” Ambassador Smirnov said.
 

Source: BNA