Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Normandy Four countries, the need to provide the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with an unlimited access to the occupied territories was emphasized.

"We also paid attention to the challenges that the coronavirus pandemic poses to address both the safety and health of citizens in the occupied territories. It was repeatedly emphasized that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross should be provided with a full and unconditional access to the occupied territories to effectively fulfill the tasks assigned to them," Kuleba said at an online briefing following the ministerial conversation.

According to him, the foreign ministers mainly discussed security issues.

"And this once again demonstrates that any political discussion in the Normandy format is based on the principle of "security first." This is a fundamental principle, and we do not plan to backtrack from it," Kuleba explained.

In addition, the minister added that the issues of a socio-economic nature were discussed, in particular, how people from the occupied territories can receive pensions.

"I informed about the measures taken by the Ukrainian government to ensure that people from the occupied territories have access to pensions. And we emphasized once again that these issues should be resolved in accordance with the Minsk agreements exclusively in the legal field of Ukraine. This is very important," Kuleba said.