Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is considers several candidates to replace Roman Bezsmertny in a political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group dealing with the crisis in Donbas, the presidential administration said.
“There is no tragedy in Bezsmertny’s statement about his withdrawal from the negotiations in the format of the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group. We appreciate his highly professional and dedicated work of almost two years,” deputy head of the presidential administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev told Interfax-Ukraine.
He recalled that Ukraine has its representative in the political subgroup and it is Volodymyr Horbulin.
“Currently, the president is considering several candidates to replace Bezsmertny. The team play of the Ukrainian delegation in Minsk negotiations, which is headed and successfully provided by Leonid Kuchma, will continue,” Yeliseyev said.
As reported, on April 28 Ukraine’s representative in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group dealing with the crisis in Donbas in the Minsk format Bezsmertny informed the other parties on Thursday that he had quit the talks.
“I have decided for myself and informed all those concerned, from the people responsible for the process’ technological support to the president, that I have finished this stage in my life,” Bezsmertny told the European Truth online publication.
As it was reported, Roman Bezsmertny, Ukraine’s representative in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group in the Minsk format, informed the other parties on April 28, that he had quit the negotiations.
“I have decided for myself and informed all of those concerned, from the people responsible for the process’s technological support to the president, that I have finished this stage in my life,” Bezsmertny said, in interview with European Truth.
Bezsmertny said new representative of Ukraine, Olha Aivazovska, has been included in the subgroup to replace him. “Everything is currently concentrated on elections, in which she is a specialist,” he said.
Aivazovska has specialized in monitoring election processes in Ukraine since 2001. In 2006, she became a co-founder of the OPORA Civic Network, an all-Ukrainian NGO. It was reported, in early April, that the Ukrainian delegation to the political subgroup had invited Aivazovska to discuss modalities of elections in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
For her part, Aivazovska said that she was working in the contact group as an expert and she had not been approached about her taking any other position.
