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Verkhovna Rada Speaker meets with OSCE PA President about expanding its mission to Ukraine
06.02.2015 13:04 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
The Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Greusman met with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva in Kyiv on Friday to discuss the possibility of expanding the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to eastern Ukraine, NRCU reports.
«It would be good if the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly decided to expand the monitoring mission both on Ukraine’s territory and the Russian side of the border in order to stop deliveries of weapons and troops targeting Ukrainian citizens, including those who live in those rebel-held areas,» Greusman said at a joint press briefing with Kannerva.
Reportedly, the latter admitted that the presence of OSCE monitors at only two border crossing points was not enough to monitor the actual situation along the 600-kilometer-long borderline.
«The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is interested in the implementation of all terms of the Minsk agreements, which, however, cannot be implemented if there are no tools. We know that Ukraine needs military support, but the OSCE basically represents humanitarian initiatives,» Kannerva said.
In reply to the question about Russia’s intention to include a representative of Crimea into its delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Kannerva said, «Answering such questions, I always stress: Crimea is Ukraine’s territory.»
He also said that the Parliamentary Assembly is to hold a special debate in two weeks in Vienna where the Ukraine issue is to be number one on the agenda, and that the Special Monitoring Mission to eastern Ukraine would be enlarged to half a thousand in mid-February.
As to the report, the Ukrainian Parliament speaker thanked him for the adoption of the Baku Declaration by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly which clearly recognized Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the occupation of Crimea and supported the Ukrainian leadership’s peace initiatives.
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