KYIV. June 14 (Interfax) - The next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on June 19 will address the liberation of captives and hostages, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said.
"The next Trilateral Contact Group meeting in Minsk on [June] 19 should be an attempt to see how we could have a breakthrough in freeing the hostages. We are also trying, among other things, to transfer the discussion on freeing political prisoners there, which Russia is blocking," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak in Kyiv on Thursday.
Klimkin accused Russia of obstructing the separation of opposing forces and weapons in Donbas, particularly near Stanytsia Luhanska.
"Russia's tactic is very banal: it is trying to worsen Ukraine's positions, particularly President Zelensky's positions, before his visits to Berlin and Paris, in order to prevent [the separation] or blame [Kyiv] for the fact that the separation is proceeding amid gunfire," he said.
Ukraine is committed to the idea of an effective and verifiable ceasefire in Donbas, he said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier put the blame for the disruption of the separation of forces and weapons near Stanytsia Luhanska on Kyiv.