Contact group on Ukraine reaches ceasefire agreement for Easter holidays

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine on Friday reached an agreement in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to observe a ceasefire in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, as soon as the Easter and the May holidays begin.

The announcement was made by Special Envoy Martin Sajdik of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The Trilateral Contact Group and the representatives of certain areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine are welcoming the determination of all the participants in the Minsk process aiming to secure a full observation of the ceasefire regime with the start of the Easter and May Holidays, which will become effective from midnight Saturday.

"We hope that Easter truce go into a lasting peace, and it will give additional impetus to the comprehensive political settlement in Ukraine", said Boris Gryzlov, Russia's permanent envoy to the Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine said Friday.

Sajdik, the OSCE Special Representative, said the participants of humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine had not agreed to release those captives held in the Donbass. He also noted that the subgroup agreed on the opening of the checkpoint in the village of Luganskaja starting from Saturday.

The Trilateral Contact on Ukraine will meet again in Minsk on May 18. Enditem

(APD)