Сhaired by Iryna Herashchenko, the First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a representative in the TCG’s humanitarian subgroup, on September 20 there took place a Minsk platform meeting at the Parliament’s premises.
The event was also attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the German Federal Republic to Ukraine Ernst Reichel, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to Ukraine Isabelle Dumont, the Director of Foreign Policy Division of the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, a counselor for the U.S. Special Representative in Ukraine John Kastning.
The participants of the meeting discussed the security and humanitarian situation in the Donbas, the problem of non-fulfillment of the Minsk agreements by the Russian Federation. Particular attention was paid to prolongation of the law of Ukraine "On special procedure of local self-governance in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts". The Normandy format partners – Germany and France – stressed the importance of adoption of the said law for maintaining political and diplomatic settlement of the situation in the east of Ukraine.
E. Reichel and I. Dumont assured Ukraine in their sustained support as to restoring its territorial integrity, and noted that Russia’s exertion to hold illegal elections in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (oblasts) is against the line of the Minsk accords. Once such elections occur, they sure will be considered illegal, and will only complicate the negotiations over a peaceful settlement of the situation in the east of Ukraine.
All the Ukrainian parliamentarians in one voice underscored the need to step up the sanctions pressure over aggressive Russia. It was observed that in recent years Russia has not fulfilled any obligations in the security and humanitarian blocks of the Minsk agreements.
Both ambassadors were informed in detail about systematic shelling over the Donbas by the Russian Federation and their warlike stooges – as well as of the long delay by Russians in releasing hostages and political prisoners of the Kremlin.
During the meeting, the participants also exchanged views on the prospects for deploying the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Donbas and the need to counteract the implementation of the Russian politically motivated project "Nord Stream-2".
The meeting was attended by members of parliament: I.Aleksieiev, O.Bielkova, O.Bryhinets, S.Vysotskyi, N.Veselova, V.Vovk, H.Hopko, M.Dzhemiliev, O.Yednak, S.Zalishchuk, V.Zaruzhko, M.Ionova, I.Krulko, D.Lubinets, Yu.Pavlenko, V.Pylypenko, I.Popov, B.Tarasiuk, S.Taruta, A.Teteruk, O.Yurynets, M.Naiem, O.Masorina, I. Lutsenko.