A regular meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) was held in the format of a video conference with the participation of the delegations of Ukraine and the Russian Federation under the moderation of the OSCE.
At the beginning of the meeting, Head of the Ukrainian delegation Leonid Kravchuk suggested preparing an action plan within a week with the participation of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE to unlock the TCG negotiations and further steps in the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
An appropriate action plan should be developed using the proposals of the participants in the consultations and developments based on the results of the meeting of advisors to the leaders of the "Normandy Four", which took place in Paris in September this year.
"Ukraine will also prepare its draft action plan. Therefore, we offer to convene a meeting of the TCG in a week to demonstrate our willingness to resolve urgent working issues," Leonid Kravchuk said.
The participants of the consultations in the Trilateral Contact Group agreed on the date of opening two checkpoints - "Zolote" and "Schastia" - November 10.
First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Delegation Oleksiy Reznikov assured of Ukraine's willingness to open both checkpoints on a stipulated date. On November 6, he will visit these checkpoints to complete organizational issues. Oleksiy Reznikov also invited Ms. Heidi Grau to visit the checkpoints together.
At the same time, the representatives of Ukraine informed that the infrastructure of both checkpoints is ready for freight transport. The Ukrainian party is also completing the asphalting of the road in the area of Zolote checkpoint, which has been under fire three times over the year.
In the framework of the working group on security issues, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group Heidi Grau noted the willingness of the parties to maintain a permanent ceasefire.
She also called on the members of the Trilateral Contact Group to continue working on a coordination mechanism to monitor compliance with the regime of silence.
The members of the Ukrainian delegation noted: the fact that the participants of the consultations agreed to develop a draft action plan makes it possible to unblock already today the implementation of the agreements on demining 20 new sites, which is extremely important due to the upcoming winter period, and to move on to practical actions on disengagement of forces and assets in the next four areas.
In addition, Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG Leonid Kravchuk called on Russia and the occupation authorities from the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to unblock the process of mutual release of detainees without waiting for the abovementioned draft action plan.
The representatives of Ukraine insisted on the confirmation of persons from the list for mutual release, which the Ukrainian party submitted in July.
Ms. Heidi Grau urged to speed up the process, as while the negotiations continue, people remain imprisoned, which is not humane.