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The Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement on Thursday, May 14, held a scheduled meeting via video link, where an upgraded delegation for the first time presented Ukraine, the press service of the President's Office reported.

It is noted that the humanitarian subgroup has continued its work on forming the lists for the next stage of the held persons' swap, as well as the lists of missing persons.

"The Ukrainian side insisted on the mutual release of held persons in the "all for all" format, defined in the framework of the Normandy Four summit of December 9 2019," the report said.

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Also, Ukraine noted the provision of access to the Red Cross to those held in temporarily occupied territories.

Read alsoUkraine inviting IDPs to Minsk talks – Zelensky's Office chief

The Ukrainian side emphasized that the elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas shall only be held in accordance with the Constitution and legislation of Ukraine and based on the OSCE Copenhagen criteria, including on the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and protection of minority rights, only after Ukraine has regained control over the border.

The Ukrainian side ruled out the possibility of consolidating the special status of the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Constitution of Ukraine.

Parties also spoke of the need to open new crossing checkpoints along the line of contact, taking into account primarily humanitarian criteria.

"The checkpoint in Zolote is equipped and ready to launch at any time," the Ukrainian delegation noted.

Ukraine also insisted on the access of the OSCE SMM observers to the temporarily occupied territories, noting that, despite quarantine, Ukraine supports the implementation of the mandate of both the observers and representatives of the ICRC.

"The OSCE SMM noted, among other things, significant progress in the implementation of the updated demining plan, in particular the humanitarian one," the report says.

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As UNIAN reported earlier, on May 5, President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the composition of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group for the Peaceful Settlement in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions.

Vice Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, Oleksiy Reznikov, was appointed deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG. At the subgroup level, Ukraine is now represented by deputy ministers or people's deputies – chairs of the relevant parliamentary committees.

The Ukrainian side also proposed to attract to the work of TCG subgroups as "invited persons" a number of internally displaced citizens forced to leave the occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions after May 2014.

Head of President's Office Andriy Yermak noted that the participants in the TCG would involve IDPs in discussions, consultation, and coordination of issues stipulated by Minsk agreements.

At the same time, Yermak says any negotiations with representatives of unrecognized quasi-entities in eastern Ukraine are unacceptable.