Ukraine: OSCE monitors ceasefire violations

According to AFP, on March 3, Ukraine said its leaders, along with France, Germany and Russia, agreed to deploy monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to 10 hot spots on the eastern border of the country to strengthen the fragile ceasefire.

According to a statement on the four-way phone call released by the Ukrainian presidential office, President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and their Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "supported Ukraine's proposal to send monitors to all areas of ceasefire violations."

Rebel forces fire a rocket from a base in the city of Gorlivka, eastern Donetsk region on February 18. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

This monitoring operation will first be carried out at 10 hotspots on the front line: Shchastya, Popasna, Stanitsa Luganska, Krymske, Avdiivka, Volnovakha, Granitne, Luganske, Shyrokine and Donetsk airport.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the leaders "agreed that the OSCE should play a more important role in monitoring the ceasefire and the withdrawal of weapons." Meanwhile, the French president's office said there had been "progress" in imposing a ceasefire.

In a statement, the Kremlin stressed that the leaders "pointed out the importance of strictly observing the ceasefire and continuing the withdrawal of heavy weapons," and reminded the OSCE mission to "regularly provide information" on the monitoring process./.

According to VNA