Second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who is a member of the tripartite contact group, has said that on behalf of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, he and other members of the group are ready to hold another meeting to resolve the situation in Ukraine's east.
“While the trilateral contact group is ready to seek ways to peace,
the consultations have not started, no signals have arrived from the
other side, whereas 32 hours remain until the ceasefire ends,” Kuchma
said in a statement made available to Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
Kuchma said agreement on holding another meeting of the tripartite
contact group was achieved on June 25 during a telephone conversation
involving Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President
Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Poroshenko’s press service reported that during the telephone
conversation, Merkel suggested making leader of the Ukrainian Choice
movement Viktor Medvedchuk a mediator in a tripartite contact group, and
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and other participants of the
conversation agreed to this proposal.
Multilateral consultations were held on the premises of Donetsk
Regional State Administration on June 23. They were attended by Russian
Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, envoy of the OSCE
chairperson-in-office Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s second president
Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian Choice public organization leader Viktor
Medvedchuk, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s
Republic Alexander Borodai, Southeast movement leader Oleh Tsariov and
representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.