OSCE head welcomes Minsk ceasefire memorandum on Ukraine

         OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, President of the Swiss Confederation Didier Burkhalter believes that the ceasefire implementation memorandum signed in Minsk on the night of 19/20 September is an important step towards the de-escalation of the situation in the region, reads a statement of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office cited by news agencies.
       According to Didier Burkhalter, the memorandum is a "significant step towards making the ceasefire sustainable and an important contribution in the efforts to peacefully settle the crisis in Eastern Ukraine."
On the night of 19/20 September, the contact group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and the self-proclaimed republics signed a memorandum regulating the implementation of the Minsk Protocol passed by the contact group on 5 September. The memorandum consists of nine provisions. It underlines that the ceasefire is to be considered bilateral.