On September 2, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin met with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, who are on a working visit to Ukraine.
During the meeting there were discussed ways to involve the Council of Europe to de-escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine, monitoring human rights violations in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea after its temporary occupation by the Russian Federation, and in Luhansk and Donetsk regions as a result of activities of terrorist groups supported by Russia.
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe T.Yahland confirmed that the actions of the Russian Federation concerning the territorial integrity and security of Ukraine constitute violation of its statutory and conventional obligations as a Member State of the Council of Europe.
Particular attention was paid to the involvement of the Council of Europe to the issue of release of political prisoners - Ukrainian citizens, illegally detained in the Russian Federation, especially of Nadia Savchenko and Oleg Sentsov.
"We will not stop until the Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia will be released and the Council of Europe assistance in this matter is very important for us", - said P.Klimkin.
Also the parties discussed urgent issues of cooperation between Ukraine and the Council of Europe in the fields of urgent reforms in Ukraine: constitutional, judicial, electoral, reforming law-enforcement bodies and in other areas which will be the basis of a new Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2015-2017.