The Official statement of the Ombudsman as a result of Minsk meeting

Comments and statements of the Ombudsman News

On June 21, a regular meeting of the humanitarian subgroup took place in Minsk.

As agreed earlier, the representatives of the Ukrainian side were to provide Release Certificates in the meeting. Unfortunately, most of them do not comply with the Annex No. 9, approved the Order of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The flip side of the approved document was not provided. Therefore, in order not to delay the negotiations, I proposed that we study the information provided by the Ukrainian side and send a written response hereof at the beginning of the next week.

Among other things, we agreed to recognize the results of verification, so I can state its successful completion. As a result of the two-step verification, individuals who did not confirm the refusal signed under the pressure of the Ukrainian special services were identified.

The next meeting of the subgroup will take place on July 5. Both sides must work out and regularize the lists by this day, so we could discuss the exchange date according to “confirmed for confirmed” formula.

I note that the shelling of boarding school No. 3 in Trudovskiye village of Donetsk and of boarding school No. 14 in Yasinovataya was discussed in the Contact Group meeting. The OSCE representatives also spoke against the shelling of educational institutions.