The local elections in certain territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions must be held according to Ukrainian law and the working groups of the Trilateral Contact Group must agree to that, former OSCE Special Representative in the contact group Heidi Tagliavini has said.

The Minsk agreements are evident – the elections must be held according to Ukrainian law. Of course, there are some issues that need to be settled and naturally there are huge differences. So let the working group do its job, Tagliavini said in an interview with journalists in Kyiv on the results of her work as OSCE Special Representative in the contact group.

She said that the subgroup on political issues of the Trilateral Contact Group was currently discussing two issues – the elections and the special status of Donbas. As these issues can't be solved during one meeting, the group decided to meet more often – every week until the end of July.

As the deadline is tight, and the elections are to be held at the end of October, talks should be held now, Tagliavini said.

She also said that there were a lot of related issues that hadn't been agreed on yet. For example, who can be elected, who can vote, the media's presence, and the participation of political parties. The work is being done to find a compromise on these issues, she said.

According to her, the main achievement of the contact group in the year since it was created was the basis to settle the conflict.

According to Tagliavini, since the first Minsk agreements were reached on September 5, 2014, there have been no large-scale military confrontations except for the battle for Debaltseve.

The diplomat said she believes that the conflict in Donbas can only be solved by the tight cooperation of all the players. There's an international level, and a regional one – relations between Russia and Ukraine. And there's a home policy level to this conflict. And the work should be done on all three levels, Tagliavini said.

She failed to mention any specific terms and refused to predict the development of events. Tagliavini hopes that everyone involved will have enough wisdom to understand that a solution to the conflict can only be found via a compromise, not militarily, as sooner or later, even if the military actions start once again, people will sit down to negotiate and discuss the conditions of a peaceful settlement, Tagliavini said.

The diplomat refuted rumors that she was dismissed due to unsatisfactory results of the talks in Minsk. She said this was speculation as if she had been upset and disappointed after some Minsk meetings, she wouldn't have started work. However, Tagliavini said that the year had been very difficult.

All participants in the meetings come with their emotions, and those emotions should be somehow smoothed by trying to build bridges, to find a way out of a no-win situation. And these meetings sometimes last 4-7 hours, and you sit there without breaks trying to concentrate and to take opportunities. It is difficult. Thus, one year of such work equals many years of routine diplomatic work, Tagliavini said.