You're reading: Poroshenko suggests setting up Minsk subgroup for Ukrainian-Russian border issues

Ukraine will insist on the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE, SMM) being provided unimpeded access to the uncontrolled parts of the Ukrainian-Russian border, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said.

“Ukraine will insist on OSCE SMM representatives being provided with unimpeded access not only to the buffer zone but also to the parts of the Ukrainian-Russian border that are temporarily out of our control,” he told the Ukrainian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, and the Ukrainian representatives in the Group’s subgroups for political, security, socio-economic and humanitarian issues.

Poroshenko noted that the question of creating a separate, fifth subgroup to deal with Ukrainian-Russian border issues, remains relevant, according to the president’s official site.

With regard to the security subgroup, the president pointed to the significant worsening of the situation in the conflict zone in the past few days as a result of a rise in shelling and provocations by militants.