In light of the escalation of the crisis in Donbas, Ukraine made a number of proposals during a Tuesday videoconference of the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the conflict, including that on deploying 10 ceasefire monitoring stations on the line of contact, says Darya Olifer, spokesperson for former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who represents the Ukrainian government in the Contact Group.

"It is presumed that Ukrainian and Russian officers from the Joint Center on Control and Coordination and members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission will be deployed at these stations. First such stations could be deployed in the most problematic spots, including the Donetsk airport and the community of Shyrokyne," Olifer said on Facebook on Tuesday.

It was pointed out at the Contact Group videoconference that Ukraine could not acknowledge that the situation in Donbas was de-escalating, as six Ukrainian military servicemen had been killed and 12 others injured, and over 100 instances of shelling had been recorded over the previous 24 hours, Olifer said.

"In the current situation, Ukraine proposes, in particular, that a plan be signed on withdrawing tanks, mortars, and guns smaller than 100mm in caliber," Olifer said.

"This provision would follow up on an initiative by the Normandy Quartet foreign ministers they had aired at a meeting in Berlin on April 13," Olifer said.

Kyiv also proposed Shyrokyne's demilitarization, that is, "the mutual withdrawal of armed units from this community" and the deployment of OSCE monitors there, she said.

Ukraine also insists on providing it with the opportunity to deliver humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Luhansk, Olifer said. "Taking into account the current humanitarian situation in these districts, this should be done within the shortest possible time. First of all, humanitarian aid will be delivered to orphanages, residential care facilities, hospitals, and senior centers," she said.

"Unfortunately, representatives of the so-called DPR and LPR [self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics] are acting as unconstructive negotiators," she said.

"The matter implies their peculiar interpretation of some of the Minsk agreements clauses, in particular, attempts to condition the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians and an exchange in captives and other people held unlawfully by some nonexistent agreements," Olifer said.

In this connection, Ukraine once again mentioned Clause 6 of the Minsk agreements concerning an exchange in hostages and other people held unlawfully.

"Ukraine has implemented everything necessary for such an exchange in the all-for-all format, just as it is envisioned by the Minsk agreements," Olifer quoted Kuchma as saying.

Ukraine is ready to take active part in setting up sub-groups on security, political, economic, and humanitarian aspects of the Minsk agreements, the report says.