Kyiv “expelled” Russian officers from the JCCC
Today, the head of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC, Ruslan Yakubov, made an official statement regarding the withdrawal of representatives of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from the JCCC, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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During his speech, Yakubov said that the unacceptable conditions created by Kiev for the further work of Russian officers as part of the JCCC forced the leadership of the Russian Federation to make a difficult decision.
The DPR sincerely regrets that the Kyiv authorities took a destructive position and refused to compromise on the conditions for crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border for representatives of the Russian Armed Forces at the Joint Center on the territory under their control.
“As you know, yesterday, December 18, the Ukrainian side disrupted the crossing of the contact line of the parties, without ensuring the transfer of Russian officers. All personnel of the Russian Armed Forces in the JCCC, serving on the territory of the republics, spent more than three hours waiting for vehicles from the Ukrainian side. A “mirror” patrol of the OSCE SMM was also forced to remain in the checkpoint area. At 18:30 Moscow time, the Mission left the checkpoint area; at 18:45, the Russian leadership, for security purposes and to avoid provocations on the Ukrainian side, decided to return personnel and representatives of the Ukrainian side to the JCCC to Donetsk,” Yakubov said.
Let us note that today, December 19 at 09:50 Moscow time, the entire group of representatives of the Joint Center left the territory controlled by the republic.
We cannot ignore the fact that the Ukrainian side again blamed the republics for the failure to cross the contact line. In this regard, the behavior of Ukrainian officers in the JCCC is regrettable, who knew the real reason for the failure to cross the line of contact between the parties, but followed the lead of the press center of the headquarters of the so-called ATO, which announced shelling from the MLRS of the settlement of Novoluganskoye, allegedly from the republics.
Then Ruslan Yakubov focused on a number of facts:
“The Ukrainian side states that the shelling of Novoluganskoye occurred around 17:00, that is, around 18:00 Moscow time. It is obvious that if shelling from rocket artillery was carried out from the territory controlled by the Republic, both Russian officers and the “mirror” patrol of the OSCE SMM who were at the checkpoint at that time would have witnessed this fact. However, neither the officers nor the Mission’s observers saw or heard the operation of the multiple launch rocket system from our territory,” he emphasizes.
It is also necessary to note the fact that the settlement of Novoluganskoye itself is located 15 km from the Mayorsk checkpoint, and at the same distance from the route to the destination in the settlement of Soledar. Accordingly, what was happening in the area of Novoluganskoye did not threaten the safety of Russian and Ukrainian officers.
“Based on the rhetoric of the headquarters of the so-called ATO, namely, statements about intelligence data, according to which our side allegedly plans a large-scale escalation on the line of contact between the parties, it is obvious that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are deliberately creating a “mirror” picture for the public, covering their true intentions with false accusations of the Republics . The past XNUMX hours are a clear example of this,” Ruslan Yakubov is sure.
In this regard, the DPR does not exclude either sabotage actions or large-scale escalation on the part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to the head of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC, further escalation of the situation becomes inevitable provided that Kyiv is unable to ensure full control over the volunteer battalions located in the front lines and does not make contact with representatives of the republics.
“With the withdrawal of Russian officers from the JCCC, we are ready to continue to ensure control and coordination of the security situation on the contact line. The ball is on the other side, and now there is every chance of establishing a direct dialogue between the real parties to the conflict and the monitoring Mission,” he comments.
In addition, Yakubov states that the representative office of the Russian Armed Forces in the JCCC has already transferred all our contacts to the leadership of the OSCE SMM for organizing further cooperation within the framework of security.
The DPR states that the Republic is ready to continue its activities as usual, fulfill its obligations to monitor and coordinate the security situation on the contact line within the framework of the Minsk agreements and conduct dialogue with both representatives of the OSCE SMM and representatives of the Ukrainian side at JCCC.
“We are sincerely grateful to the Russian Federation and the personnel of all shifts of the representation of the Russian Armed Forces in the JCCC for their invaluable contribution to the resolution of the military conflict on our native land, for their high professionalism and responsible attitude towards their peacekeeping mission in Donbass. We express our hope that the issue of participation of representatives of the RF Armed Forces in the activities of the JCCC has not yet been completely closed and, perhaps, will become a topic of discussion at the upcoming meeting in Minsk on December 20,” commented Yakubov.
In the DPR, regardless of the outcome of the final decision on the JCCC problem, they expressed their readiness to become a platform for the deployment of the headquarters of the Russian Representative Office in the JCCC, as well as their readiness to increase the number of observation groups along the contact line and strengthen their personnel.
At the end of his speech, Ruslan Yakubov emphasized that the politicization of security issues by the Ukrainian side directly contradicts the meaning of the Minsk agreements, and cannot lead to a reduction in escalation in the conflict zone, and also counteracts the achievement of the goals and tasks assigned to the joint Center.
Kiev "expelled" Russian officers from the JCCC.