Press Statement of Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sajdik after Meeting of Trilateral Contact Group on 22 November 2018

MINSK, 22 November 2018 – The Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Martin Sajdik, made the following statement to the press after the meeting of the TCG ‎and its Working Groups in Minsk on 22 November 2018:

“First of all, on behalf of the TСG and on my own behalf, I would like to congratulate Evgenii Marchuk on his appointment as head of the Ukrainian delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group.

We are very pleased to work with Mr. Marchuk, former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Ukraine. He is a person of immense professional and personal experience.

Until now, Mr. Marchuk was the head of the Ukrainian delegation in the Working Group on Security Issues. He knows our work very well, and this will definitely be instrumental for him in his new capacity.

And now, about our work today. In the focus of the TCG discussions were the so-called “elections” in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (CADR and CALR) held on 11 November 2018. The sides have once again expressed their points of view on the issue.

My position on this question, as confirmed by the statement of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, is already known to you and remains unchanged.

Next week, the implementation of the Minsk agreements will be discussed in Berlin and Vienna. I welcome these upcoming discussions.

On Monday, the Normandy Four will meet in Berlin as part of the control mechanism stipulated by the Declaration of the leaders of the Normandy Four of 12 February 2015. I welcome this meeting, as it demonstrates the interaction between the Normandy and Minsk formats. Further, on Thursday, the OSCE Permanent Council will convene in Vienna. This meeting will be dedicated to Ukraine, with participation of Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan and myself.

Today, the Security Working Group focused on additional measures to ensure sustainable cessation of fire and the implementation of "humanitarian demining". The issues of disengagement of forces and hardware were duly considered, too.

The Economic Working Group paid particular attention to water deliveries in the "Karbonyt" and "Voda Donbasa" supply systems. Besides, the issues of pension payments were duly discussed.

The Humanitarian Working Group continued its discussion on questions related to the exchange of detainees and the crossing conditions at the contact line via entry-exit checkpoints.

The participants of the Political Working Group further exchanged views on the modalities of the implementation of the ‘Steinmeier formula’ in light of the already mentioned so-called “elections”.