President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić.
The President noted the intensification of Ukraine's cooperation within the Council of Europe and noted that this was the second visit of Marija Pejčinović Burić to Ukraine this year.
"I want to thank you and your colleagues for the great attention to Ukraine, for supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The President also stressed the importance of representing the Council of Europe at the inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform, which took place on August 23.
"We were pleased to welcome you to Kyiv and look forward to further active involvement of the Council of Europe experts in the work of this international mechanism of deoccupation of the Crimean peninsula," the President said.
In this regard, the interlocutors paid considerable attention to the role that the Council of Europe should play in the protection of human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea and Donbas.
"I am confident that the activities of your organization in this extremely important direction for us will only intensify," said the President of Ukraine.
The practical modalities of involving the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in monitoring the human rights situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in accordance with the norms of international law and national legislation of our state were discussed separately.
The President stressed that the Ukrainian side is waiting for the first report of Marija Pejčinović Burić on the human rights situation in the temporarily occupied Crimea and is ready to cooperate in this important area. "I am convinced that your visit to the administrative border with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has provided a deeper understanding of the importance of this issue and will help in the preparation of the report," the President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically called on the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to promote the involvement of all mechanisms of this international organization for the release of Ukrainians illegally detained by the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Marija Pejčinović Burić touched upon the issue of practical support from the Secretariat of the Council of Europe for Ukraine's European integration, in particular in the areas of human rights protection, rule of law and development of democratic institutions, praising this cooperation.
In this regard, the President informed the Secretary General of the Council of Europe about the signing of the anti-oligarchic law passed by the Verkhovna Rada. As agreed between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Gianni Buquicchio, President of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), the text of the law signed by the President will be submitted to the commission for consideration and preparation of an opinion.