Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini discussed the crisis in Ukraine in a series of telephone conversations today, the first day of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Minister spoke to her Ukrainian and Russian colleagues, Pavlo Klimkin and Serghei Lavrov, and to the Chairperson-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Didier Burkhalter, and the Secretary General, Lamberto Zannier.
Minister Mogherini noted the ceasefire that has been announced and the determination of the Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, to take forward the peace plan, as well as the overtures from Moscow. In this light, she encouraged her interlocutors to open a new round of tripartite negotiations.
This should be done as soon as possible: indeed, in the coming hours. The goal is to achieve a bilateral ceasefire, the release of all the hostages, and a system for controlling the Ukrainian-Russian border, which the OSCE has been tasked with monitoring.
With Burkhalter and Zannier, Minister Mogherini discussed how to follow up on the proposal to allow the OSCE observers to enter Russian territory safely to carry out their border control tasks.
