There is hope for implementation of the Trilateral Contact Group's framework agreement on disengagement of forces and hardware in three sectors of the delimitation line in eastern Ukraine, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

The framework agreement stipulates that the sides have 13 days to implement this document in the first three sectors, Hug recalled at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday. Despite the cases of failure to fulfill the obligations, which were recorded in the past week, the mission's employees observed certain evidence showing that the sides understand the need to act, he said. The representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) removed several concrete fences near Zolote and Pervomaisk, and mine clearance works carried out by the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded in the region, he said.

These small steps show that the sides understand the need to implement all the provisions of the agreement for it to work, Hug said. The evident determination to make efforts for the agreement to have tangible results exists at the highest level, he said. The leaders of the both sides signed this agreement at long last, he said.

He said that the OSCE SMM received the sides' information required by the agreements and now their declared determination should be proven in practice. Clear orders and communication should exist on all levels and the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) should serve as a driving force of this process, Hug said. The JCCC should use more practical approach to mine clearance and providing the security guarantees to the SMM, and it should happen today, it cannot wait for disengagement of forces and hardware to conclude, he said. At that stage the presence of armed forces and units in the sectors of disengagement will be considered a violation, he said.

If the observers' access to the sectors mentioned in the agreement is allowed, the observers may carry out verification, owing to which establishing the confidence may be possible, which will allow, in turn, initiating the difficult process of disengagement of forces and hardware, he said. And not only in these three sectors, but further along the entire contact line, he said.

Hug said that the OSCE SMM records constant violations of the Minsk Agreements and the framework agreements in all three sectors since the moment of signing of the framework agreement on September 21, there is no access to them or it is restricted.

He said he is aware that the authors of the framework agreement were not naive and expected certain problems to emerge. And the JCCC should facilitate swift response to the restrictions of carrying out the OSCE SMM's the monitoring and verification. Hug said that the Ukrainian and Russian generals in the JCCC assured him that the center will jointly operated to provide safe access of the OSCE SMM and that mine clearance works will be held, in Soledar on Monday. But the situation on the site was different, he said.

When the mission's observers recorded anti-personnel landmines in Petrivske on Tuesday, no representatives of the JCCC's Russian side were on the site, Hug said.

The next day, the officers of the Ukrainian and Russian armed forces in the JCCC in Petrivske said that they had no instructions in cooperation and contact with each other. None of them made any effort to provide the SMM's access to this area and carry out mine clearance works, he said.