President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde. The Head of State congratulated Ann Linde on taking office as OSCE Chairman-in-Office and noted that cooperation with the Organization is very important for Ukraine and Ukrainians, the Office of the President of Ukraine said.. “We want to thank all representatives of the OSCE mission from Ukraine for supporting Ukraine, always supporting our sovereignty and our territorial integrity,” he said.. The President of Ukraine believes that the issue of ending the war in Donbass is always discussed by the Ukrainian side at a high representative level, since it is extremely important for Ukraine.. He noted that Ukraine has fulfilled all the agreements reached at the meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Four in December 2019. However, on the other hand, only one checkpoint is open, while the rest of the checkpoints built by Ukraine for humanitarian purposes, which should provide comfortable services to people, are not opened in the occupied territory.. Also, the process of mutual return of detained persons is being slowed down, access of the International Committee of the Red Cross to detainees and the work of the OSCE mission in the occupied territory, demining and the process of disengagement of troops in new areas are blocked.. At the same time, the Head of State noted that there is progress in terms of a sustainable ceasefire in Donbass, and a regime of silence has been in effect for more than six months..

Although sometimes it is provocatively violated by the militants, nevertheless, thanks to the measures that have been in effect since July 27, 2020, it was possible to significantly reduce the number of military and civilian deaths.. The interlocutors discussed issues related to the activities of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed the Chairman-in-Office about Ukraine's expectations from the work of the OSCE SMM. The need to strengthen the organizational capacity of the mission, its technical capacity and financial support was noted..