Нино Пухаева

The Round table #DonbassbeZgenocide” with the participation of students from South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Russia, Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics was held online on Thursday.

The event was organized by the center of youth diplomacy "Legatus" in Donetsk.

Its participants unanimously decided to send an open letter to the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the world's leading media and the entire world community calling for an end to the genocide in Donbas.

The military-political situation around the Republic of South Ossetia has a tendency to become more complicated, said Major General Viktor Fedorov, Chief of the General Staff of the Republic's Armed Forces, speaking at the reporting meeting of the Defense Ministry.

Geneva security discussions in Transcaucasia will arrive in Tskhinval on Tuesday.

According to the press service of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of South Ossetia for post-conflict settlement, “the EU, the UN and the OSCE co-chairs will arrive in Tskhinval on the eve of the next round of the Geneva discussions, which will be held on April 2-3. Here they will discuss with South Ossetian colleagues the issues of preparation for the meeting in Geneva,”

Security issues at the state border of South Ossetia with Georgia were discussed at the first meeting in 2019 within the framework of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRM).

According to the head of the South Ossetian delegation in the format of IPRM Egor Kochiev, since the previous meeting, have been recorded 11 violations of the state border of the Republic by citizens of Georgia.

Kochiev has noted that the South Ossetian party focused on the misinformation spread by the Georgian media.

At the negotiations in Geneva, South Ossetia called on the Georgian side to assist the Republic in clarifying the fate of the South Ossetian citizens to be listed missing since 2008, said Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of the RSO for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev.

Issues outside the format of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM), submitted for discussion by the Georgian side, impede its functioning, said Presidential Envoy of South Ossetia for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev.

“The IPRM is obliged to consider and prevent situations in the regions adjacent to the border of South Ossetia with Georgia. We made this clear in Geneva. Issues that relate to the work of the Mechanism under the mandate should be put on the agenda of the meeting in this format,” the Plenipotentiary said.

Participants in the Geneva discussions could not advance on the issue of developing a legally binding document on the non-use of force against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, told reporters Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Republic for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev,

“Unfortunately, no new steps could be made in this direction. The Abkhaz colleagues proposed a new draft statement on the non-use of force, which is practically the same as the previous version. The Georgian party, in turn, again asked for time to study it,” said Dzhioev.

The South Ossetian delegation in Geneva focused on the threats coming from Georgia. As noted at a briefing in Tskhinval by the South Ossetian Presidential Envoy for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev, the Geneva discussions on security in the Transcaucasus always take place in a difficult situation.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia, Dmitry Medoev, called the year 2018 saturated and significant in terms of the development of the country's foreign policy ties.

“In January took place the first visit of the President of South Ossetia to the center of Europe. It was a very serious breakthrough. In addition, this year took place our visit to Nauru on the 50th anniversary of the country, which is a member of many international organizations. Interesting trips to Italy also took place, which will be developed,”said the Foreign Minister at a press conference in Tskhinval.

Elections in neighboring Georgia are internal affair of the Georgian state; this has nothing to do with South Ossetia, said Dmitry Medoev, Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia, answering journalists' questions about how he assesses the results of the first round of presidential elections in the neighboring republic.