Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has met with OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid, who is on a visit to Ukraine. They discussed the results of the meeting of advisers to the leaders of the Normandy format countries held in the format of a video conference on May 26, as well as the situation in Donbas and the progress of the OSCE mission in Ukraine, the presidential press service reported.
Schmid said that representatives of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) are making every effort to achieve progress in resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine, but noted a significant restriction on the freedom of movement of the monitoring mission’s observers.
She said that more than 90% of these cases are on the other side of the contact line. Also, an alarming trend is an increase in the number of jamming of the signal of unmanned aerial vehicles, interference in the operation of the technical means of the mission, she added.
At the same time, Schmid emphasized that every effort should be made to provide humanitarian support to the population of the occupied regions.
She also mentioned pension provision, saying that steps must be taken towards reconciliation. Of course, COVID-19 has made its own adjustments to the reality – the number of crossings of the contact line has dropped by 97%, she said, adding that she was very grateful to Ukraine for the fact that checkpoints remain open on its side.
Yermak, in turn, stressed that the Ukrainian side focuses on these problems during negotiations at all international venues. He added that the possibilities for solving these problems will increase if the ceasefire is observed.
“We will not stop, we have no other alternative, and we must stop this war and return our territories. Even if it is necessary to make a thousand attempts and only one of them will get a chance to achieve a result,” he said.
“We have not yet been able to agree on a joint statement on the return to the full ceasefire. I want to assure you that Ukraine will not stop for a minute in continuing work, since it concerns the life of our people and the security of our land,” Yermak added.
He also thanked the OSCE Mission for its efforts to bring peace back to Ukraine. Yermak noted the support of Germany and France in the framework of the Normandy talks.
