Lavrov Called for End of Economic Blockade against Novorossiya at OSCE Confab

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Minister of Foreign Affairs S V Lavrov, speaking at a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Belgrade, called for an immediate end to the economic blockade of the Donbass:

The most-pressing priority facing us is the immediate lifting of the economic blockade of the Donbass, which is totally unjustified. We remain convinced that the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict are real… no one contests this. To implement this, we must scrupulously carry through all aspects of the Minsk accords through direct dialogue, to ensure that the Ukrainian side doesn’t shirk its obligations nor assign blame to others, nor issue militant rhetoric to provoke a breach of the ceasefire. Our collective effort through the Normandy Quartet contact group and the OSCE mission special monitoring mission in the Ukraine should aim at settling the Ukrainian issue.

3 December 2015

NTV

http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/1579791/

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OSCE Thinks Junta Forces Complicate DNR Water Supply Functions

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Today, Olga Skripovskaya, head of the Donetsk office of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, told journalists:

Armed bands and regular Ukrainian forces, along with mines and unexploded ordnance, compounded by poor road conditions, hinders access to wells and hampers bringing in water by pipeline to local residents. Repair work on water supply objects isn’t possible due to shelling. Our mission has contributed to local ceasefires, to enable utilities crews to carry out repair work on water system infrastructure.

However, the ceasefire also allows the junta aggressors to bring up military equipment to the Contact Line and to feed in additional units, including nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries.

18 September 2015

DAN Donetsk News Agency

http://dan-news.info/world/obse-schitaet-vsu-prepyatstviem-dlya-obespecheniya-normalnogo-vodosnabzheniya-zhitelej-dnr.html

OSCE Concerned about Donbass Water Supply Before Onset of Heating Season

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Today, Olga Skripovskaya, head of the Donetsk office of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, told journalists:

We’re extremely concerned that central heating utilities won’t function due to war damage in the coming winter (without specifying any localities). Shelling degraded the water supply system; it’s in need of repair. Damage to electrical subsystems Decreased functionality of water pumps. The OSCE considers a speedy withdrawal of heavy weapons from the Contact Line a necessity; the sides should refrain from placing military equipment near civilian infrastructure.

According to local authorities, most localities in the DNR, including those near the Contact Line, are now 90 percent ready for the start of the heating season.

18 September 2015

DAN Donetsk News Agency

http://dan-news.info/obschestvo/v-obse-obespokoeny-sostoyaniem-vodosnabzheniya-v-donbasse-pered-nachalom-otopitelnogo-sezona.html

Leshchenko sez DNR Sent Invitation to OSCE to Monitor DNR Local Elections

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Today, Maksim Leshchenko, Head of Administration for the DNR Chairman of the Government, told us:

By order of DNR Chairman of the Government A V Zakharchenko, we sent an official invitation this morning to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to send observers to monitor our local elections [on 18 October 2015]. Zakharchenko signed the request on Saturday, 29 August. We expressed our confidence that we’d soon get a positive response to our proposal. We have no intention to hide and hold closed elections in the region. Despite the difficult situation in the DNR, we’re committed to the Minsk Agreement and are ready to comply with it, even unilaterally. We’ll do everything possible to see to it that our local elections are fair and open. To show that everything is transparent and complies with the letter of the law, we hope that the OSCE would help us. We guarantee security for any [OSCE] mission and we’d see to the prerequisites for its fruitful work. Provocations are possible, but they’d be even more probable if the OSCE refused our invitation. We’ve never confirmed any case of cessation of attacks just because the OSCE mission came to a town intensively shelled on the previous day.

31 August 2015

DAN Donetsk News Agency

http://dan-news.info/politics/dnr-opravila-v-bdipch-obse-priglashenie-dlya-monitoringa-vyborov-leshhenko.html