The Contact Group on settling the situation in eastern Ukraine has confirmed its commitment to the Easter ceasefire at Wednesday’s meeting, said Boris Gryzlov, Russia’s representative to the Contact Group.
“The Contact Group has confirmed its commitment to the Eastern ceasefire,” he pointed out.
At the previous meeting of the Contact Group, held on March 29, its members adopted a statement introducing a complete ceasefire in Donbass starting from April 1 ahead of the Easter celebrations. However, according to the sources in the self-proclaimed Donbass republics, the Ukrainian military was able to abide by the ceasefire only for an hour as it shelled the Kalinovka settlement at 01:20 on April 1.
Since then, attacks on areas adjacent to the line of contact have been continuing. In the past few days, the Ukrainian military’s shelling killed two female civilians in the Petrovsky District of Donetsk, besides, one militiaman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) was killed and another one was left wounded. Residential dwellings were destroyed in Donetsk, Dokuchayevsk and the Yasnoye settlement, power lines and an electrical substation in Donetsk, as well as a gas pipeline in Dokuchayevsk, were damaged.
This year, Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on April 16.