OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić today welcomed the beginning of efforts to remove and destroy unexploded ordinance in southeast Ukraine as a good example of co-operation by all sides yielding tangible results and producing visible improvements in the lives of the local population.

"Up to yesterday, unexploded projectiles were posing a constant threat to the villagers of Kominternove," said Dačić. "This is starting to change as the local ceasefire holds and OSCE monitors have been able to engage with all the parties and negotiate security arrangements, including demining."

OSCE monitors have been working with representatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the so-called Donetsk People's Republic ("DPR"), the Ukrainian and Russian Armed Forces staff of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination, and with local residents to agree on how to proceed with the demining.

"I am pleased to see that the demining exercise is not the end of co-operation on the ground and that further demining efforts will be carried out in Pavlopil. I call on all to intensify their co-operation with the monitors and contribute to improving the security situation," Dačić added.




Photo by:OSCE/Micky Kroell