Meetings in Minsk have brought certain results, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko told journalists following his negotiations with leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and representatives of the EU.
“Our main goal is peace. We demand resolute actions that will bring peace to the Ukrainian land,” the President noted.
In the course of the meeting, the key issue had been discussed – closing of the Ukrainian-Russian border to prevent the movement of armored vehicles, mercenaries and ammunition. The importance of consultations of border guards for the implementation of the given task has been emphasized.
The President informs that consultations between the Chiefs of General Staff must begin following the results of the negotiations. “We agreed that we will hold consultations through trilateral contact group to speed up the transition to the bilateral ceasefire regime control of which will be carried out by the representatives of the OSCE monitoring mission,” he informed.
In her turn, High Representative of the EU Catherine Ashton stressed that currently the main thing was peace, security, ceasefire and finding the ways to ensure the security of the Ukrainian-Russian border. She informed that a “positive discussion” had been held in the context of economic aspects of the implementation of the Association Agreement.
Petro Poroshenko emphasized that in the course of all meetings in Minsk, the parties had discussed the implementation of the peace plan of the Ukrainian President on the settlement of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. “We insisted that first of all it is necessary to reach an agreement to ensure freedom of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens. The logic of the peace plan has been finally supported by all heads of state,” he said.
According to the President, the parties agreed with the necessity to intensify the activity of trilateral contact group.
In the context of the Association Agreement, the parties agreed to begin consultations at the level of experts that will ensure minimization of consequences of the given agreement for countries-neighbors.
The President informed that negotiations on energy issues with participation of Ministers of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine, Russia and the EU would be held on September 6. Ukraine will inform the EU leaders on further actions on the implementation of the Agreement on August 30 in Brussels.