ent on removal of weapons under 100 mm to be signed soon – OSCE
Members of the Trilateral Contact Group mediating the situation in eastern Ukraine will sign a proposal, which has been agreed on by its working subgroup on security, for weapons with a caliber of less than 100mm to be removed in the coming days, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) deputy chief Alexander Hug said.
The members of the working subgroups agreed on their positions over the removal of weapons with a caliber of less than 100mm and submitted the proposal to the Trilateral Contact Group, Hug said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
The Group members said they have not signed this proposal but will do so in the coming days, he said.
Asked whether the agreement to remove weapons with a caliber of less than 100mm should be signed, given that heavier ones have not been removed to this day, Hug said that tanks and weapons of the caliber in question were not part of the Minsk accords and that weapons with a caliber of up to 100mm have a limited operational range: an 82mm mortar has a firing range of six to seven kilometers. If this type of weapon is removed beyond this radius, this will help improve the situation, he said.
The Trilateral Contact Group meets in Minsk in July. OSCE Chairperson-in-office Ivica Dacic, who attended the meeting, said the Contact Group members had agreed on a draft document on removing weapons with a caliber of less than 100mm.