OREANDA-NEWS. On January 20, 2015 the OSCE Permanent Council at its special meeting, held at the initiative of the Ukrainian side, adopted a Declaration on Ukraine.

In Declaration that reflected approaches of Ukraine and its partners, OSCE participating states expressed serious concern over the military escalation in recent days in Donbas, called for an immediate ceasefire by all sides and, importantly, the full implementation of the Minsk Protocol of 5 September 2014 and Memorandum of 19 September 2014.

Permanent Council expressed its full support to the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini and called upon all signatories of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum to meet as soon as possible in order to achieve practical progress on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. The OSCE Participating States also supported all efforts being made, including in the Normandy format, to de-escalate the situation and emphasized that all sides should fully respect and ensure the safety and security of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

MFA welcomes the adoption of the Declaration by the OSCE Permanent Council that provided clear political signals on behalf of the Organization on efforts to be taken to ensure return of peace in the Ukrainian Donbas.

Such consolidated position of 57 OSCE participating states comprises an important signal, including in the context of the meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs in Normandy format that may take place in Berlin soon, as well as consideration of the situation in Ukraine at the meeting of the UN Security Council, scheduled for January 21, 2015.