The Ukrainian side in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk has clearly stated that there can be no question of a referendum in the occupied territories of Donbas, according to First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko, who represents Ukraine in the TCG's humanitarian subgroup.

"The Ukrainian side posed one more question to the Russians at [the meetings of] the TCG and the political subgroup. Was the idea of a 'referendum' in Donbas raised at the Helsinki summit? We clearly stated that there cannot be any referendums on the occupied Ukrainian lands," she wrote on her Facebook page after the TCG meeting in Minsk on Wednesday.