MINSK. Jan 16 (Interfax) - The next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine is scheduled for February 1, Martin Sajdik, Special Representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in the Contact Group said.
"On February 1," Sajdik said when asked by reporters in Minsk on Monday.
Donetsk has confirmed this information. "The next meeting is scheduled for February 1," Viktoria Talakina, spokesperson for Denis Pushilin, chief negotiator of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples' Republic said on her Facebok page.
Referring to the results of the Monday meetings of three working subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group, Sajdik noted that positive events took place during the peace process. In particular, he welcomed resumption of water and electric power supplies.
Sajdik added that he was pleased to mark this achievement.
Besides, with regard to the humanitarian area, Sajdik welcomed such gesture of good will as the release of illegally detained persons.
In relation to the role of the political subgroup, Sajdik revealed that its work was focused on discussing the 'Steinmeier formula'.
The formula offered earlier by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stipulates for the procedure under which Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada first adopts legislation on elections in the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas and then the elections are held in the territories and after the elections, OSCE will conclude whether the elections were in compliance with European standards and if they fail to comply, the laws on special status of the Donbas republics adopted by the Verkhovna Rada will not take effect.