Dacic: Ceasefire agreement is followed for most part

WASHINGTON - The ceasefire agreement between the pro-Russian forces in the Donets Basin, eastern Ukraine, and the Ukrainian side is being followed for the most part, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said, according to TASS.

The ceasefire in Ukraine is fragile, but mostly respected, Dacic told the Helsinki Commission of the US Congress on Wednesday.

The OSCE's top priority is to prevent the crisis in Ukraine from escalating and later turning into an even bigger conflict, he noted.

The OSCE is trying to ensure that the crisis is resolved through diplomatic means, the Russian agency stated.

Commenting on meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Pavel Klimkin, in New York on Monday, Dacic stated that the two sides had agreed to extend the mandate of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine by another year.

We managed to agree on extending the mandate of the mission by 12 months, he said, according to TASS.