On Friday, November 13, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak took part in a working meeting of political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four in the format of a video conference.
During the meeting, Foreign Policy Adviser to German Chancellor Jan Hecker noted the progress of the Ukrainian party, in particular the opening of two new checkpoints in the Luhansk region.
"We’ve noticed significant progress on the ground. Ukraine has opened two additional checkpoints in the Luhansk region," he said.
The German Chancellor's political adviser called on Russia to take immediate measures to provide passage from the territories not controlled by the Ukrainian government, which are currently blocking the launch of these checkpoints.
Jan Hecker also stressed the need to ensure unhindered access of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to places of detention in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas in order to speed up the process of verifying the lists for mutual release of detainees.
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak thanked the partners from Germany and France for the initiative to hold today's video conference and for their support for the Ukrainian party. He also thanked the parties for supporting the ceasefire in Donbas, as it helps save the lives and health of Ukrainian citizens.
At the same time, Andriy Yermak noted the need to intensify the work of the Trilateral Contact Group. Therefore, he called for the adoption of a document that would give impetus to the Minsk negotiating format.
In particular, the Head of the Office of the President spoke about the action plan prepared by the Ukrainian party.
“The document is entitled "Plan of joint steps of the members of the Trilateral Contact Group for the implementation of the Minsk agreements". We consider this document as one that concerns the implementation of the Minsk agreements in the work of the TCG. This document is the result of all important developments both in the Normandy format in the past and in the work of the TCG. If an understanding is reached, I believe that this plan of joint steps can really become the basis of a great road map that we can adopt at the level of the Normandy format," he said.
Andriy Yermak noted that the Ukrainian document summarizes the proposals voiced by the parties at the TCG meetings.
The participants of the meeting agreed to continue consultations on the development of a single road map based on the document submitted by Ukraine.
Ukraine supported the proposal of the German party to organize the work of expert groups of advisers to the leaders of the countries participating in the Normandy format to accelerate this process.
"Of course, next week our representatives are ready to be in Berlin to continue working on the document," Andriy Yermak said.
According to him, it will be useful to continue working in both the TCG format and the Normandy format.
Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of France Emmanuel Bonne noted that the development of a single document will allow the parties to achieve progress in the negotiations within the Trilateral Contact Group.
The Russian party agreed with the need to intensify the work of the TCG. Along with the consideration of the plan of joint steps of the TCG participants in the implementation of the Minsk agreements, this indicates the possibility of accelerating the work of the group in all areas, primarily humanitarian.