President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky withdrew Vitold Fokin from the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group to settle the situation in Donbas (TCG) and relieved him of his duties as the first deputy head of the delegation.

As reported on the website of the head of state, on Wednesday the president signed a corresponding decree No. 414/2020 regarding the issues of the Ukrainian delegation to participate in the TCG.

"The President said that Vitold Fokin, first of all, retreated from a fair assessment of the temporary occupation of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of our state. Representing the state at any level is not a chance for personal views and ambitions, it is an unconditional obligation to implement the position of the state and the interests of the Ukrainian people", said in the message published on the website of the president.

The report also says that it is essential for the head of state that everyone who is entrusted with the performance of functions on behalf of the state should always be guided in their activities and statements by the national interests of Ukraine and the purpose of the delegation is to return control over the temporarily occupied territories on Ukrainian terms.

"The work of the Ukrainian delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group will continue on the basis of a clear understanding of Russia's complete control of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The main goal of our delegation, like the entire state, is the return of all temporarily occupied territories, our people, as well as the establishment of a lasting peace exclusively on Ukrainian terms [...] We call on the members of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG to work 24/7 to achieve this main goal," the President's Office said.

The report also says that the conditions for the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine "cannot simply be called peace", turning a blind eye to the existence of occupation structures and the complete lack of security in this territory. "It is necessary to withdraw from Ukraine all illegal armed groups, their military equipment, to carry out a complete de-occupation and return to Ukraine control over part of the border with Russia. Only this can be the way to real peace," the President's Office reported.

As reported, the first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG Fokin said at a meeting of the parliamentary Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government and Urban Planning on Tuesday: "As for the war. I am not a politician. I cannot make any definition of this, since there is not a single confirmation that there is Russia's war against Ukraine, I have not seen it." According to him, "militants and fighters from almost 30 countries of the world" are acting against the armed forces of Ukraine in Donbas.

Answering questions from members of the committee, Fokin said that over the past six years he had not been in the war zone in Donbas.

After that, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak criticized Fokin's statement and demanded to expel him from the TCG.

The Verkhovna Rada's Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government and Urban Planning proposed to the parliament to adopt a resolution with an appeal to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the statements and actions of Fokin and to stop his participation in the work of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG.