Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is considers several candidates to replace Roman Bezsmertny in a political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group dealing with the crisis in Donbas, the presidential administration said.

"There is no tragedy in Bezsmertny's statement about his withdrawal from the negotiations in the format of the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group. We appreciate his highly professional and dedicated work of almost two years," deputy head of the presidential administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev told Interfax-Ukraine.

He recalled that Ukraine has its representative in the political subgroup and it is Volodymyr Horbulin.

"Currently, the president is considering several candidates to replace Bezsmertny. The team play of the Ukrainian delegation in Minsk negotiations, which is headed and successfully provided by Leonid Kuchma, will continue," Yeliseyev said.