Contact Group on Ukraine Agrees on Safe Zones Around Donbass Infrastructure

Participants of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine have agreed on creating safe zones around important infrastructure objects in Ukraine's conflict torn Donbass region, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine Martin Sajdik said Wednesday.

MINSK (Sputnik) — The situation in east Ukraine worsened at the end of January when fighting between local militias and the Ukrainian military intensified in the towns of Avdiivka and Yasynuvata.

"The participants of the group returned to the issues of securing critical infrastructure sites. The sides expressed readiness to establish safe zones around a pumping station in Vasilyevka and the Donetsk water filtration station [DFS]," Sajdik told reporters.

The DFS is located about seven miles away from the city in a neutral strip of territory on the line of contact and it is regularly hit by shelling. It provides Donetsk, Avdiivka and some other major Donbas cities with water.

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that has been formed as a means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine.