We welcome the fact that the Trilateral Contact Group has agreed on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine ahead of the start of the school year. Following yesterday’s phone call in Normandy format, the ceasefire is also being expressly supported by the leadership of Russia and Ukraine.

The fact that pupils will be returning to school should remind all sides to the conflict to respect the ceasefire and finally let the guns fall silent. Such agreements have been broken all too often in the past. The sides to the conflict should give OSCE observers safe access to the entire region, so that the ceasefire can be transparently monitored.

The priority now is to finally take additional steps, so that progress can be made on implementation of the Minsk agreements.