The text of an address by a group of members of the Servant of the People faction on the decision of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on settlement in Donbas on the foundation of the Consultative Council has been published on the social networking site Facebook.

"It is alarming that the Consultative Council that is being created will comprise representatives of Ukraine and certain areas of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions uncontrolled by Ukraine as parties to the consultations with equal rights," the statement said.

The deputies said that, according to the provisions of the Ukrainian law On the State Policies for Ensuring the State Sovereignty of Ukraine on the Temporarily Occupied Territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions No. 2268 of 2018, the Russian Federation temporarily occupied the territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and consequently, talks with the so-called "LPR," "DPR" and the areas of Luhansk and Donetsk regions uncontrolled by Ukraine (ORDLO) cannot be conducted in any form.

"All talks on ensuring the rights and interests of citizens of Ukraine, and also on the termination of military aggression need to be conducted only with the Russian Federation and its officials. The legitimacy of representatives of the so-called ORDLO can only be recognized if they were appointed by lawful Ukrainian officials or lawful bodies of authority of our state," the statement said.

The deputies said they are certain that the practical implementation of the provision on the Consultative Council will become a foundation for doubting the legislatively stated position of Ukraine on Russia's responsibility for the occupation of Crimea and the military aggression on the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. That, in turn, will become a threat for the prolongation of the sanctions and will not resolve the situation with security in Donbas in any way.

In this regard, we are addressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the need, in a situation of a contradictory public reaction to the recent Minsk initiatives, the issuance of orders to the Ukrainian officials in the Trilateral Contact Group and all Ukrainian negotiators to return to the framework of the Ukrainian legislation and prevent the implementation of the published decisions on the creation of the Consultative Group by a method and in the forms that are not supported by the people of Ukraine contradict the current legislation of the state and national interest," the deputies said.

The statement was posted on the Facebook pages of Mykyta Poturayev, deputy head of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian and information policy issues, Olena Shuliak, deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, Dmytro Natalukha, the head of the committee on economic development issues, Anastasia Krasnoselska, chair of the committee on anti-corruption policy issues, Yehor Chernev, chairman of the Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Vitaliy Bezhin and Dmytro Hurin, members of the committee on the organization of state authority local self-government and town-planning, Oleksandr Tkachenko, the head of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian and information policy issues, Viktoria Podhorna, a member of the committee on digital transformation issues, and Dmytro Kysylesky, deputy chairman of the committee on economic development issues.

Hurin later posted a link to an expanded list of deputies who have signed the statement. There were 28 on the list as of 7:15 p.m. on March 13 and the collection of signatures continues.

According to earlier reports, citing ZN.UA, the protocol of the TCG meeting on March 11 states that the TCG decision on the foundation of the Consultative Council was expected to be signed on March 25, 2020 after consultations with OSCE, French and German officials.

According to the publication, the council will comprise 10 Ukrainian officials and 10 officials from ORDLO with full voting status and one official with consultative capacity from the OSCE, Russia, Germany and France, each, with their consent.