Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on settlement of the conflict in Donbas says that a decrease in the level of escalation on the disengagement line between Ukraine and ORDLO will directly depend on the strengthening of US and European Union sanctions against Russia.

"There will be an aggravation, until the sanctions mechanism against Russia, in general, both in Europe and in the United States, starts actively working, until Russia feels real united diplomatic pressure from all sides, until we all together force Russia to live and act the way the state living in a civilized global world should act," Kravchuk said on Wednesday evening, March 3, on the air of the Ukraine 24 TV channel.

As reported, a regular meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group was held in the mode of videoconference on March 3, during which Leonid Kravchuk protested against the so-called "People's militia of the DPR" report on allegedly obtaining "permits to conduct warning fire to suppress enemy firing points." The head of the Ukrainian delegation assessed this statement as a threat to the unilateral withdrawal of the Russian side from the ceasefire and a threat to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

It is also reported that the day before [for the period from March 2 to 3], the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) recorded 150 violations of the ceasefire in Donetsk region.