The Trilateral Contact Group for settling the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, including representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), agreed following a videoconference on Thursday that the silence regime observed since midnight on September 1 should be extended, Darya Olifer, a spokesperson for former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Kyiv's official representative in the group, said on Facebook.

"The Trilateral Contact Group reached agreement on extending the silence regime and called on the parties to continue observing it. The parties admitted the need to keep making efforts so that the ceasefire becomes sustainable," Olifer said following the group's Skype conference.

During the videoconference, Chief Monitor of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) to Ukraine and OSCE coordinator in the security subgroup Ertugrul Apakan and officers from the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) presented reports on the situation in Donbas, she said.

"It can be concluded based on their reports that, as of 3:00 p.m. September 1, 2016, a ceasefire has been chiefly observed along the entire line of contact since midnight on August 31, 2016," Olifer said.

The liberation of captives remains the most sensitive issue at the moment, Olifer said. "Despite difficulties, we keep doing what we can to make sure that people come back home," she said.