Russian Envoy to Ukraine Contact Group Urges Ceasefire in Donbass by September 1

Moscow is calling for full and permanent ceasefire in Donbass by September 1, Russian envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group Boris Gryzlov said Friday.

MINSK (Sputnik) – The Trilateral Contact Group, consisting of envoys and experts from Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), holds regular meetings in Minsk aimed at facilitating a diplomatic resolution to the armed conflict in Donbass. The group met once again earlier on Friday. The Ukrainian side said that the sides to the conflict agreed to a ceasefire starting September 1.

"There is very little time left before September 1 when educational process will begin at schools. We are calling on sides to the conflict to cease fire fully and permanently before the beginning of the school year," Gryzlov told reporters.

Kiev launched a military operation in the country's east in April 2014 after the local residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power after the coup earlier the same year.

In February 2015, Kiev and the two regions reached a ceasefire deal after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine – the so-called Normandy Format — in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Despite the Minsk peace accords, both sides to the conflict have continued to blame each other for multiple ceasefire violations.