Ukraine’s security service reported on 22 June 2016 that it expelled Vladimir Cheban, Chief of Staff of Russian group of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) from Ukraine for five years. The ban was based on accusing him of aiding Russian-backed militants from the “Donetsk People’s Republic” of concealing their violation of the ceasefire agreed to under the Minsk agreements and to facilitating fabricating evidence of Ukrainian violation of the ceasefire.
A video released by the SBU features two telephone intercepts where Vladimir Cheban is heard having a conversation “Yakub,” deputy chief of Staff of the 1st army corps of the “DNR,” where the Russian officer gives away information about monthly schedules and flight routes of OSCE Special Monitoring Mission drones, which observe the withdrawal of heavy armor banned under the Minsk agreements from the contact line.
“Using this information, militants were able to hide their firing positions from international observers, as well as their locations with heavy weapons and equipment,” the SBU’s press service said in its statement.
In a second conversation, Cheban urges a Duty Staff officer of the 1st army corps of “DNR” to find remnants of a Grad missile with the intent of fabricating evidence for the Ukrainian Amry’s alleged shelling of “DNR” territory, which is forbidden under the Minsk agreements.
The Russian citizen left the territory of Ukraine through the Kharkiv Oblast.
The JCCC was set up In September 2014 to see to the implementation of a cease-fire agreement. It consists of Ukrainian and Russian servicemen.
Russian servicemen, who are members of the JCCC, have a status of tourists in Ukraine. By the end of 2015, the JCCC had 74 Russian officers, 34 of them permanently based on Ukraine-controlled territories.
