The parties that signed the Minsk Agreements could stop hostilities in eastern Ukraine if they wanted to, OSCE SMM First Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

Those who signed the Minsk accords are in charge of stopping the warfare. We know that they can do it anytime if they want to, Hug said at a press briefing in Ukraine's Odesa.

Hug singled out the availability of weapons prohibited under the Minsk Agreements and the proximity of the positions of the opposing sides in a number of places along the contact line as factors contributing to the continuation of armed clashes.

The sides ought to disengage their forces so that they are not located in the area they are directly visible to each other, he said.

A number of checkpoints for entry and exit across the separation line are not so much checkpoints as 'theaters of combat operations', Hug remarked.