Ukrainian FM, OSCE Chair-in-Office agree to make every effort for SMM full functioning
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba had a phone conversation with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Zbigniew Rau, during which the interlocutors agreed to make every effort for the full functioning of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) press service said on Wednesday.
"The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office informed the minister in detail about the results of his visit to Moscow. Dmytro Kuleba briefed Zbigniew Rau about the security situation near the state border and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine," the MFA said.
It notes that the minister also said Ukraine is closely following the real actions of the Russian side after the statements on the withdrawal of troops and "will believe in the beginning of de-escalation only in the event of a real decrease in the number of military personnel stationed in these areas."
"The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry drew the interlocutor's attention to the approval in the Russian parliament of a resolution on an appeal to the President of the Russian Federation on the recognition of the so-called 'L/DPR.' The minister once again stressed that if the leadership of Russia makes an appropriate decision, this will mean a conscious withdrawal of Russia from the Minsk agreements and will have devastating consequences for the international legal order and the global security architecture."
The MFA said Kuleba and Rau agreed to make every effort to ensure the full functioning of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy also said that Russia must demonstrate the transparency of its military activities in accordance with the Vienna Document and provide explanations at the request of Ukraine.
"In conclusion, the minister expressed his gratitude to the Polish Chairmanship and stressed Ukraine's readiness to further fruitfully cooperate within the OSCE on the implementation of its priorities," the Foreign Ministry said.
