President of Ukraine

President: During a meeting in the Normandy format it is necessary to determine specific terms of the release of all detained Ukrainians

20 November 2019 - 18:47

President: During a meeting in the Normandy format it is necessary to determine specific terms of the release of all detained Ukrainians

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stresses that during a meeting in the Normandy format it is important to reach an agreement on specific terms of the release of all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.

"It is the detainees confirmed by the other party. And it is imperative that we find opportunities to return those people who are not confirmed by the other party yet confirmed by our lists,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, talking to reporters near the bridge in the area of Stanytsia Luhanska during a working trip to the Luhansk region.

The President noted that according to the parents of the illegally detained Ukrainians, some surnames are not in the lists for liberation.

"I would like to have a complete understanding of the whole list of our people with the terms of their return," Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized.

According to the President, another important issue to be discussed during a meeting in the Normandy format is a real, not imitated, truce and ceasefire.

"Not a fake ceasefire, not a fake “Khlibne” truce - when there has been a ceasefire for two or three days and then they started firing and we lost people. A real truce is when there are no shots, with clear deadlines and responsibilities. So far in Minsk, at many meetings, no one has talked about the consequences for the opening of fire if we agreed to a ceasefire,” the President said.

The Head of State also noted that during the Normandy summit, the issue of transferring control over the state border with Russia to Ukraine should be discussed.

“Another issue - one of the difficult ones, as it has many components - is the possibility of holding local elections on the territory of Ukraine, not on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. The most important issue,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed.