Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman and OSCE PA President Ilkka Kanerva on Friday meeting discussed situation in Donbas and preparation to the OSCE PA winter session.
At the beginning of the meeting, Volodymyr Groysman thanked for OSCE PA and its President's support of our counteraction to Russian aggression, stressing that such a stand has great significance for stabilizing situation in Ukraine.
He claimed that at the present stage the issue on consolidation of pressure from the international community on Russia is urgent.
The Chairperson of the Parliament stressed that Ukraine highly appreciates adoption of the Resolution "On the obvious, gross and uncorrected violations of the Helsinki principles of the Russian Federation" in Baku in 2014 at the annual OSCE PA session.
Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada also stressed that Ukrainian Parliament "is always applying measures for consolidation of attempts for international assistance" to our country.
The Parties stressed that the basis fro the process of finding political regulation of situation in Donbas is Minsk agreements and stated that the Russian Party does not execute these agreements. In words of Volodymyr Groysman, the Russian Party uses diplomatic instruments for discrediting parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe and OSCE, trying "to undermine their unity".
In connection with this, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine drew attention to provocations of the Russian Party to exclude from their delegation a representative of Crimea. Volodymyr Groysman instructed the Ukrainian delegation in OSCE PA to file an appeal against this person's authorities, stressing that Crimea was and is the territory of Ukraine.
"We have to preserve our unity and not allow any destructive tendencies", claimed Chairperson of the Parliament.
In his turn, OSCE PA President claimed the Assembly supports independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine. "Situation in Ukraine is number one in the OSCE", he said. "We see the military situation, humanitarian situation, and, unfortunately, we see actions of the Russian Federation in the East of Ukraine", said I.Kanerva.
In his words, during the winter meeting of OSCE PA on February 18-20, 2015 in Vienna, debates on the situation in the East of our country will be held. "We need to encourage peaceful settlement of the problem", stressed I.Kanerva. He claimed PA OSCE will continue discussing "Ukrainian issue" during the annual simmer session in Helsinki.
I.Kanerva claimed OSCE PA "is increasing pressure on Russia to reach a constructive approach on its part". He also spoke in favour of extending the mandate of OSCE Monitoring Mission on the territory of Ukraine in order for its work to be "more efficient". In his turn, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada claims it is necessary to pay special attention to mandate of OSCE mission of the territory of the Russian Federation, particularly, spreading its activity to the entire length of Ukrainian-Russian border in order to stop supplying weapons to the territory of our country and prevent insurgents from crossing the border.
The Parties also discussed the initiative on forming an inter-parliamentary contact group on Ukraine. The decision to create such group was adopted last year during the annual OSCE PA session in Baku. Volodymyr Groysman claimed composition and modality of activity of such group should be agreed with Ukrainian Party, since otherwise its activity will be inefficient.
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