Russian military to abandon joint control body in Ukraine

MOSCOW, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Russian military will abandon the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) in Ukraine on Tuesday due to Kiev's "obstruction" to their activities, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.

"The Ukrainian side deliberately created tense moral and psychological conditions for the members of our military personnel and obstructed the performance of their official duties," a ministry statement said.

In particular, Russian officers were restricted to access to the line of contact with insurgents in the southeast of Ukraine and to joint observation posts there, and were prohibited from communicating with the local population, it said.

There have also been cases of disrespectful attitude of Ukrainian servicemen towards their Russian counterparts, the ministry added.

The JCCC, consisting of Russian and Ukrainian officers, was set up in September 2014 by an agreement between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine to assist the implementation of the Minsk agreements on a settlement in Ukraine.

Although the JCCC has played a significant role in monitoring the situation and in helping to resolve disputes in the insurgent Donbas region, it remained an unofficial body, as "Kiev categorically objected to any documentary regulation" of its functioning.

In addition, Kiev plans to toughen the regulation on the entry and stay of Russian citizens in Ukraine from the next year on, which contradicts bilateral agreements on visa-free travel and is therefore unacceptable for Russian servicemen, the ministry said.

"We have already informed our foreign partners about this forced step, stressing that all responsibility for possible consequences lies entirely with the Ukrainian side," it said.

The Minsk agreements, reached in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections in Donbas, among other measures. Enditem