Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with officials from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the Line of Contact; and what steps his Department is taking to deter violations of that requirement.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is in regular contact with officials from the Organisation of Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) and its Special Monitoring Mission, with discussions addressing a range of issues, including the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the Line of Contact. We and other EU member states regularly call attention to ceasefire violations and the requirements to withdraw heavy weapons. We continue to support the French – and German – led diplomatic efforts, in conjunction with the OSCE, towards securing the implementation by all parties of the Minsk agreement. But the immediate priority must be a full, comprehensive and sustained ceasefire.