Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has spoken with German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on the phone. He said he hoped that the Trilateral Contact Group would convene before the Thursday sitting of the EU Council, the Ukrainian presidential press center said.
Merkel and Hollande expressed concern about the escalating tensions in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and violations of the Minsk agreements.
“Poroshenko said that Ukraine will insist on the recognition of the DPR as a terrorist organization, because all of the victims are civilians, and the destroyed facilities include residential houses, schools, a kindergarten, a pharmacy, shops and markets,” the press center said.
The president also drew his interlocutors’ attention to the relevant statements by the leaders of the EU, the U.S., UN and NATO, which condemn the escalation of the conflict by the Russian-backed militants, as well as a statement of a special monitoring mission of the OSCE, which said that the shelling of Mariupol was carried out from rebel-controlled territory.
The sides agreed that further steps towards de-escalation of the conflict should mandatory include a bilateral ceasefire and a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group, which would promote the release of captives, the pullback of troops and heavy weapons and the arrival at a demarcation line.
Poroshenko coordinated his further moves with Merkel and Hollande, among them the convocation of a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
Merkel and Hollande offered their condolences for the Mariupol tragedy.
According to latest data, 30 civilians were killed, 95 injured as a result of the shelling of Mariupol’s residential area by militants on Saturday.
