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Photo from Ukrinform–UATV
The next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) will be held in Minsk on May 4.
This is reported by Ukrinform with reference to BELTA.
The group will discuss hostage issues, pensions and resumption of communications in the occupied territories.
Special Representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in the TCG, Martin Sajdik, said that during the talks on April 18, the group continued to discuss the humanitarian issues in regards to the exchange of political prisoners and conditions of detention of Ukrainian prisoners by Russia.
The group also spoke about the further steps needed for the re-establishment of mobile communication in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, payment of pensions and water supply in Donbas.
Ukrainian representative to the group, Iryna Herashchenko, said that no progress has been made on the issue of the release of Ukrainian hostages after the group meeting on April 18. Ukraine is ready to exchange around 20 Russian citizens, who were convicted of crimes against the territorial integrity of Ukraine, for Ukrainian political prisoners. However, the Russian side still does not confirm that dozens of Ukrainian citizens are political prisoners of Russia.
“We have not received the answer to this proposal, but instead, representatives of ORDLO [certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions] continue to include these Russians in their lists as ‘militiamen and residents of young republics.’ Russia has not shown any interest in its citizens sent to Ukraine. They do not confirm dozens of our citizens, they do not give us information on them, but instead they are stubbornly demanding that we give them former Berkut riot police officers and others who are not covered by the Minsk agreements. So, we will continue to work to find a compromise, for the result,” Herashchenko said.
The Berkut was a special police force within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Many Berkut officers defected to Russia, following its occupation of Crimea, because of which the division was dissolved in February 2014. However, many ex-Berkut servicemen are still fighting alongside the regular Ukrainian army and the re-established National Guard of Ukraine, which is partly composed of former Euromaidan activists.
The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE. The group was formed as a means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the war in the Donbas region.
