At a meeting with the ambassadors of the G7, Sweden and the European Union, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak informed the diplomats about the latest initiatives of our country on the peace process to end the war in Donbas and on the corporate governance reform.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, Head of the Delegation of Ukraine to the Trilateral Contact Group, First President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and all members of the delegation, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Yulia Svyrydenko and freelance adviser to the Head of the Office of the President Tymofiy Mylovanov.
Andriy Yermak described the current situation at the consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group and the talks of political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy format as "protracted stagnation".
"The shelling of the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the line of delimitation is continued every day. Unfortunately, Ukrainian servicemen are still being killed and wounded. Recently, the use of heavy artillery has become more frequent,” said the Head of the President's Office.
In this regard, he told the diplomats about a number of initiatives of the Ukrainian side to intensify the peace process.
"First, yesterday I sent a letter to all my colleagues in the Normandy format with a proposal to urgently convene a video conference or meet in person, which would be better, with the participation of political advisers and foreign ministers of the four countries," said Andriy Yermak.
Secondly, the involvement of experts in political, military and legal matters would help intensify the work of the Normandy format, which was an initiative of Germany and France. These advisers could work out a variety of issues, which today are primarily part of the proposed "key clusters for the implementation of the Minsk agreements".
Third, the Ukrainian side insists that special emphasis should be placed on Russia's unblocking of the implementation of the decisions of the Paris summit of the "Normandy Four", which took place in December 2019.
"Fourth, we believe that holding another summit in the Normandy format would give a serious impetus to the peace process. Therefore, I would ask you to consider the possibility of a joint appeal of the G7 to Russia with a call to support the holding of this summit," said Andriy Yermak.
In addition, he said, it is important for the OSCE SMM to return to proactive verification of violations of both the ceasefire and the full range of relevant commitments of the parties to the Minsk security agreements.
For his part, Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG Leonid Kravchuk noted that there is no progress in the issue of release of detainees, which is under the personal control of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stressed that the Russian side in the Minsk process is trying to impose the subjectivity of the so-called "republics" on the territory of ORDLO and the holding of direct talks with them. He also noted certain organizational shortcomings in the work of the TCG, which Ukraine proposes to correct.
Head of the Ukrainian party to the Joint Coordination and Control Center (JCCC) Major General Serhiy Salkutsan informed the ambassadors about the increase in the number of occasions of using illegal weapons by illegal armed groups, as well as their targeted attempts to discredit and restrict the activities of the OSCE SMM.
In the second part of the meeting, Andriy Yermak told the G7 and EU diplomats about the course of corporate governance reform of state-owned companies, which is one of the priorities for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Head of the Office of the President invited the ambassadors and their countries to join the preparation of a draft law on improving corporate governance of legal entities, the shareholder of which is the state, which will ensure the implementation of modern international standards in Ukrainian legislation. Deputy Head of the Office of the President Yulia Svyrydenko noted that the goal is to more clearly delineate the functions of the state as a shareholder and to prescribe very transparent criteria for the evaluation of supervisory boards.
Regarding the situation with Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak said that on May 13, at a meeting with the company's supervisory board with the participation of government officials, the entire supervisory board would be offered to continue working subject to ensuring a constructive dialogue with the new chairman of Naftogaz. It will work until a new transparent competition.
The Head of the Presidential Office also said that a 12-month contract was signed today with new chairman of the board of Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko, and the next head will be elected in a transparent competition, which will start in 6 months. When the new supervisory board starts working, preparations for the new competition for the election of the chairman of the board will automatically begin.