DONETSK. Nov 7 (Interfax) - The units of the people's militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) are ready for disengagement in Petrivske on November 9 if Ukraine agrees, head of the DPR office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) Ruslan Yakubov told reporters.
"Today, we have notified the OSCE SMM that units of the people's militia of the Donetsk People's Republic are ready to begin practical work on an earlier disengaged site close to the populated area of Petrivske following a relevant decision of the Contact Group on November 9. If this date is confirmed by all participants of the video conference scheduled for November 8, officials of the DPR people's militia will again fire a white flare at 1:00 p.m. on November 9 to signal readiness to begin the process of fixing irregularities on the site," Yakubov said.
There has not been any official information as of yet on the intentions of the Ukrainian side to agree with the republic on a new date on the start of a simultaneous and reciprocal withdrawal, he said.
"We expect an extraordinary meeting of the Contact Group and the approval by all participants of the nearest date, November 9," Yakubov said.
The Contact Group on Ukraine at a meeting in Minsk on October 1 approved disengagement near two populated areas in eastern Ukraine: Zolote and Petrivske. The disengagement is to take place at a distance of one kilometer from the division line and is reciprocal.
Disengagement in Donbas is a condition of a Normandy Four (Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and France) summit.
In accordance with the agreements, disengagement was to start on October 7 and end on October 11. However, several disengagement attempts failed after Kyiv refused to withdraw its forces. Ukraine said the reason for not withdrawing its forces was the militia's non-observance of the seven-day ceasefire in the Petrivske and Zolote areas.
A new agreement on disengagement was only reached at a meeting of the contact group on October 29. Kyiv then said it had started withdrawing forces in Zolote. The self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic also confirmed its readiness to withdraw weapons and the sides began disengagement, which lasted for three days and was a success, as recorded by the OSCE.
The sides also agreed on disengagement in Petrivske.