A regular meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE) was held in the format of a video conference with the participation of representatives of certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as part of the Ukrainian delegation. A technical break has been announced in the work of the TCG until June 15.
At the beginning of the discussion, the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group reiterated the priority of establishing a sustainable and comprehensive ceasefire.
In the framework of the working group on security issues, the Ukrainian party reiterated the need to ensure full and unimpeded access of the OSCE SMM to the entire temporarily uncontrolled territory.
The Ukrainian delegation also stressed its readiness to provide the necessary security guarantees to the OSCE SMM to investigate the incident with the damage to the surveillance camera of the Special Monitoring Mission in the area of Petrivske that took place on June 2, 2020.
Once again, Ukraine's readiness to open two new checkpoints for humanitarian reasons was reaffirmed.
The Ukrainian delegation suggested holding an additional meeting of the security group to achieve progress in the issue of disengagement of forces and assets.
In the framework of the working group on political issues, the Ukrainian party stated the possibility of holding local elections in some districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine within the statutory period after comprehensive de-escalation, withdrawal of foreign military units and equipment, disarmament of illegal armed groups and restoration of Ukrainian government’s control over the state border in the conflict zone.
For the first time, representatives of certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine took an active part in the work of the Ukrainian delegation in the political group and directly in the TCG in order to hold consultations provided by the Minsk agreements. Certain districts of the Donetsk region were represented by journalists Denys Kazanskyi and Serhiy Harmash, some districts of the Luhansk region were represented by lawyer, chairman of the International NGO Vadym Goran and doctor Kostiantyn Libster.
Representatives of ORDLO of Ukraine invited by the Ukrainian party stressed the need to coordinate the parameters of the political settlement with the representatives of more than 1.5 million people who were forced to leave their homes as a result of the conflict.
The Ukrainian party informed the participants of the consultations that the advisers of the Ukrainian delegation - representatives of ORDLO of Ukraine will take part in the work of TCG groups and in the TCG format on a permanent basis.
In the framework of the humanitarian group, the issue of opening the checkpoints in an adaptive mode was discussed.
At the suggestion of Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Heidi Grau, a break was announced for technical reasons until Monday, June 15.