Last Saturday, the disengagement of forces and hardware began near the villages of Bohdanivka and Petrivske in the Donetsk Region. Presently, the Ukrainian military are pulling one kilometer away from the contact line and taking the new positions determined earlier. The process is reported to be monitored by representatives of the Special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The recent report of the press center of Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operations (JFO) reads, “The disengagement of forces and arms will continue for the next three days. The withdrawal will be followed by the finding and detonating of explosive devices. Also, fortification constructions and other military installations will be dismantled within the limits of a particular sector. On the 29th day, the Ukrainian side will report on the completion of all the measures and the following day the OSCE representatives will begin the verification of the work done”. The process of disengagement is conducted simultaneously by both sides.

At the same time, it’s been stressed that the Ukrainian military will return to the former positions at the Bohdanivka-Petrivske sector in case of provocations by Russian occupants.

The village of Bohdanivka where only seven civilians have remained is under the control of Ukrainian troops while the village of Petrivske is under the control of the occupation forces.

On October 23, President Zelensky announced that a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Four (Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany) would take place after the ceasefire and disengagement of troops near the villages of Luhanske, Zolote and Petrivske in Donbas.

The disengagement near Luhanske took place this June and near the village of Zolote at the end of October. So far, neither the Minsk nor Normandy Format meetings have discussed the possible withdrawal of troops at other sectors of the conflict in Donbas.

The newspaper Holos Ukrainy