OSCE Chairman to Visit Donbass on January 3-4 - Ukraine's Foreign Ministry

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who is currently the OSCE chairman, will visit Donbas region with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin on January 3-4, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Monday.

KIEV (Sputnik) — Klimkin and Kurz are expected to discuss the OSCE efforts in the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict as well as the deployment of the OSCE armed mission in Donbass. Meetings with the local authorities and the representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine are set to be held during the visit of the ministers.

"Ukraine's Foreign Minster Pavlo Klimkin and acting OSCE Chairman, Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz will pay a working visit to Donetsk region," the statement said.

On January 1, Austria assumed the chairmanship in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, with Kurz becoming the acting chairman of the Organization.

Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.

In February 2015, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine – the so-called Normandy Format – in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, with the OSCE tasked to monitor the situation in the conflict zone.