GENEVA (Sputnik) – Russia would help remove minefields in southeastern Ukraine if it receives an official request of assistance from Kiev, Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov has told journalists.
"If there is a request from Kiev's official representatives, we are ready to take part in conducting this important humanitarian operation [demining]," Puchkov said at a press briefing in Geneva on Monday.
The minister added that Russia has special units and demining specialists as well as all the necessary technology and equipment that it has been using successfully in a humanitarian project on the removal of minefields in Serbia.
The ceasefire agreement was signed last week by the Contact Group, which includes representatives from Russia, Kiev, the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), following Normandy format talks between the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.
Apart from the ceasefire, the 13-point document requires that a secure buffer zone is created in southeastern Ukraine between the Kiev forces and independence fighters through the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the region.
The ceasefire came into force on Sunday, February 15 at midnight (Kiev time) and has been generally holding, according to the OSCE.
This is the second ceasefire agreed upon between Donbas independence fighters and Kiev forces, which launched a military operation in southeastern Ukraine last spring. The first truce, which was the result of a September Contact Group meeting in Minsk, failed to last.
