Donetsk mayor tells OSCE mission that Kyiv should join talks with protesters

Donetsk Mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko met with head of the OSCE Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan on Wednesday.

The OSCE mission members visited Donetsk to receive information on the region's problems and inform the Kyiv authorities about them, the Donetsk City Council press service said.

Lukyanchenko familiarized the OSCE inspectors with the economic and political situation in the city and told them about negotiations that the local authorities are conducting with activists.

"Central government bodies should also join the negotiating process. It is necessary to set up a commission at the parliament and government level here, in the region, to maintain dialogue with the protesters. It's necessary to work on a permanent basis with non-governmental organizations, political parties, and activists, so that issues be addressed and ways to overcome the current situation be looked for in a joint dialogue," the press service quoted Lukyanchenko as saying.