“To conduct a duly monitoring over the security situation in Donbas we need to enhance and reinforce the OSCE SMM and have the Russian Federation granted access of international humanitarian organizations and monitoring missions to the whole territory occupied, including the Crimean Peninsula,” – Iryna Herashchenko
“To execute a proper monitoring over the security situation in Donbas we need to enhance and reinforce the OSCE SMM and have the Russian Federation provided admission of international humanitarian organizations and monitoring missions to all the territories occupied, including the Crimea,” noted Iryna Herashchenko, the First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine at the meeting with Augusto Ernesto dos Santos Silva, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The First Vice-Speaker expressed her gratitude to the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs for the standing support to Ukraine and underscored that the Ukrainian side appreciated the Decision of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal regarding recognition of the Holodomor 1932-1933 to be genocide in Ukraine. Iryna Herashchenko pointed out the close collaboration between the Ukrainian and the Portuguese Parliaments. “We are hoping for further coordination of our interactions at the NATO PA, the OSCE PA, and the PACE levels,” asserted the politician.
Particular attention was paid at the meeting to the security and humanitarian situation in Donbas as well as the human rights in the Crimea. Since the start of the year there have been more than one hundred twenty Ukrainian servicemen and seventy civilians killed in Donbas. The process of liberation of the imprisoned all over the occupied territories is being blocked. Dozens of Ukrainian citizens are being held captive illegally so far in the territory of the Russian Federation. Iryna Herashchenko called on the Portuguese representatives to pay due attention to the Crimean situation which presently seems to be eye-proof and isolated from all and any international organizations.
Within the Minsk format, the Ukrainian party insists upon establishment of the fifth working group to deal with the border questions in order to trigger discussions regarding hand-over of the uncontrolled part of the Ukrainian-Russian border under Ukraine’s control, and admission of an OSCE mission to the firing points.
When talking over the state of affairs in Donbas, the Ukrainian President’s aide underscored that the prior settlement of the security and humanitarian issues is the defining moment for the next consideration of a political cluster of the Minsk Agreements.
Mariia Ionova,
the Deputy Head of the Committee on European
Integration and Hanna Hopko, the Head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs have
informed the Portuguese colleague during the meeting of the local reforms implementation,
and the harmonization of the Ukrainian legislation to the European standards in
particular.
Augusto Ernesto dos Santos Silva, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed in his turn that the Portuguese Republic did respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and did not recognize the illegal Crimean annexation. The need in a closer inter-parliamentary dialogue was also pointed out by the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs.