President of Ukraine

Head of the President's Office had a phone conversation with political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four

6 May 2020 - 16:36

Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak had a phone conversation with political advisers to the leaders of the states - members of the Normandy format.

The Ukrainian party offered to restart the work of the Trilateral Contact Group.

It is to speed up the Minsk process that the President of Ukraine signed a relevant decree, according to which Ukraine's representation in the TCG was significantly increased.

"We have raised it to a very high official level," Andriy Yermak said.

In particular, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov has been appointed Deputy Head of the Ukrainian delegation in the TCG. At the level of subgroups, Ukraine is represented by deputy ministers or people's deputies - chairmen of profile committees of the Verkhovna Rada.

The Ukrainian party also offered to involve the internally displaced persons who were forced to leave certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after May 2014 in the work of the TCG subgroups as invited persons representing these districts.

Andriy Yermak noted that the members of the Trilateral Contact Group will involve these people in the discussion, consultations and coordination of issues stipulated by the Minsk agreements.

At the same time, the Head of the President's Office stressed the inadmissibility of any negotiations with representatives of unrecognized quasi-state entities.

Andriy Yermak offered to agree on the expanded composition of the delegations of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE in accordance with the proposals of the Ukrainian party at the next meeting of the TCG, which is to take place on May 14.

"The high official status of the members of the delegations will make it possible to make decisions faster and more efficiently, implement them and see who does not implement them," the Head of the Office of the President said.

He stressed the need for a complete and comprehensive ceasefire, as well as an immediate and full access of representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross to the temporarily uncontrolled territories.

"This is directly related to people's lives and health, which is the highest priority for Ukraine," Andriy Yermak said.

"Ukraine fulfills and will continue to fulfill everything that the leaders (of the Normandy format countries - ed.) have agreed on in Paris. It is for this purpose that we have proposed a new format of TCG," the Head of the President's Office said.

It bears reminding that the day before there was a phone conversation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the countries of "Normandy Four".