The Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas (TCG) will hold next meeting in Minsk on January 31. Darka Olifer, the spokeswoman of Leonid Kuchma, the representative of Ukraine in TCG claimed this as Radio Liberty reported.
'The next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk is planned for January 31', she claimed.
At the same time, Martin Sajdik, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in the Trilateral Contact Group expressed the hope that 2018 will be a crucial year for the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.
'Today we agreed the time-schedule of our meetings until the end of the summers. The Trilateral Contact Group is the only permanent format for the seetlment of the Donbas Conflict that works at the solution and tackles such current issues as the prisoners' exchange', Sajdik emphasized.
Valeria Lutkovska, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights claimed that the sides will continue to discuss the exchange of the hostages at the next meeting.
'The sides confirmed at the meeting in Minsk that our priority is the release of all illegally detained citizens of Ukraine. The discussion continues within the trilateral format and the work on the speed-up of the process and the search of the compromises will continue at the next session', the press service of Lutkovska reported. She emphasized that Russia expressed the interest in the return of its citizens.
As we reported the first in 2018 meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas took place on January 18.