Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that it is important to make steps to release all hostages and restore control on the Ukrainian border in the context of agreements that could be reached at the talks in Minsk on Sept. 5.
“It is important that the OSCE support us and start its monitoring mission, all hostages held by terrorists be released, control on the Ukrainian-Russian border be restored, and that Russian troops be withdrawn. This is a huge challenge that now exists in these political negotiations,” he said at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen after a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission in Wales on Thursday, Sept.4.
Poroshenko noted that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “are not subject to negotiations.”
He also said he had “cautious optimism” with respect to the planned talks of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on Friday, Sept.5.
