On February 12, 2015 in Minsk, members of the Trilateral Contact Group including representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office signed a Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements. Approved was also a Declaration of President of Ukraine, President of the French Republic, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, and President of the Russian Federation in support of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine stands for steadfast realization of the Minsk agreements and their proper fulfillment, before all, as regards implementation of full ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and releasing of hostages. This position is supported by the Verkhovna Rada’s decision to implement the Constitutional reform, as well as acts of legislation passed to ensure genuine decentralization in Ukraine, and the preparatory work for holding local elections, including in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts according to Ukraine’s legislation and OSCE standards. We believe that holding of the elections in conformity with these universally recognized requirements and their positive assessment by OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is a fundamental idea behind the Minsk agreements and an indispensable part of stabilization in Donbas.

We remind that it was the sham election, which was held in Donbas on November 2, 2014 and has not been recognized by a single state, that, in fact, broke the Minsk agreements of September 5 and 19, 2014 and threatened the development of peace process. Instead, changes introduced by the Verkhovna Rada to the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Special Self-Government Order in Certain Areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts’ have blocked any attempts of Russia-backed headmen to legitimize the illegal institutions established in Donbas after November 2, 2014.

The Committee takes note of the active work of the Trilateral Contact Group and its subgroups that have embarked on substantive discussion of practical aspects of implementation of the Minsk agreements.

We proceed from the understanding that the primary task of the groups is to reach, the soonest, an agreement on additional effective measures capable of ensuring a lasting and comprehensive ceasefire, final withdrawal of heavy weapons, equal to and above the 100-mm limit, subsequent withdrawal of tanks and canons below 100-mm limit and mortars below 120-mm limit with OSCE monitoring and verification, and promote practical implementation thereof; to solve social and economic and humanitarian problems in the region caused by terrorist activities of the so-called ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR’ and Russian military aggression in Eastern Ukraine; to ensure unconditional release of all hostages, including Ukrainian citizens unlawfully held in the Russian Federation, as well as unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance to the affected areas.

Another important task of the Trilateral Contact Group and its sub-groups in to provide maximum facilitation for the effective monitoring and verification by OSCE and its Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, first of all, as regards monitors’ safety and freedom of movement, their unimpeded access to all areas, including the parts of the Ukrainian-Russian border that are temporarily out of Ukraine’s control.

Although the Minsk agreements have provided conditions for a peaceful settlement in Donbas, recently there has been substantial deterioration of security in the region due to intensified shelling and provocations by illegal armed units of the so-called ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR’. Being a Nromandi-4 party, the Russian Federation, instead of influencing the terrorist groups it controls to stop the fighting, continues to foment the conflict in Donbas by supplying the so-called ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR’ with modern military equipment, weapons and ammunition, unimpededly recruiting and training on its territory of fighters under the guise of volunteers, and using its regular military forces to wage war on the Ukrainian people.

Our desire to preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine, ensure peace for all her citizens regardless of nationality, language or religion, and to build on this foundation a prosperous European State has prompted us to appeal to foreign parliaments’ committees on foreign affairs and heads of national parliaments’ delegations to parliamentary assemblies of international organizations to use decisively and immediately all the instruments of parliamentary diplomacy, their influence and free will to achieve peace in Ukraine’s East and stop Russian aggression based on implementation of the Minsk agreements by the Russian Federation and terrorist groups it controls.

Chairwoman of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Foreign Affairs

Hanna HOPKO

Head of Ukraine's delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Ivanna KLYMPUSH-TSYNTSADZE

Head of Ukraine's delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

Volodymyr ARIEV

Head of Ukraine's delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

Artur HERASYMOV

Head of Ukraine's delegation to the Euronest

Borys TARASIUK