French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the telephone talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the need to urgently address the issue of demilitarization and demining of Shyrokyne, Donetsk Oblast, and the surrounding area.
“Urgent measures must be taken, in particular, to proceed with the
withdrawal of tanks and light weapons and to reach an agreement on
demilitarization and demining of Shyrokyne area,” the French president’s
office said in a communiqué on the results of the talks of the Normandy
Four leaders on Friday.
Hollande’s press service said that since the last meeting in this
format held on April 30, 2015, the Ukrainian authorities had taken some
“important steps.” On July 16, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the
amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution, which stipulate for a special
procedure of local governing in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.
This momentum must be maintained so that all the measures of the
Minsk agreements should be effective by the end of this year, the
communiqué said.
Hollande and Merkel also noted the need for the sides to comply with their commitments to ensure security.
The “Normandy Four” leaders also recalled the central role of the
OSCE in particular in improving the observance of ceasefire and
verifying the withdrawal of heavy weapons. Everything must be done to
ensure that observers have freedom of action and resources needed to
carry out their mission, the communiqué said.
As reported, Poroshenko’s press service said that during this
telephone conversation the Ukrainian president expressed concern about
the further escalation in Donbas, and called for the full implementation
of the Minsk agreements. Poroshenko stressed that Ukraine, unlike the
other party, is fulfilling the Minsk agreement.
The Ukrainian president also stressed the need for the “unconditional
and immediate release of all the hostages, including the citizens of
Ukraine who are illegally held in territory of Russia, including captive
Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko and Ukrainian film director Oleh
Sentsov.
