Ukraine wants the Trilateral Contact Group to continue its work in Istanbul, to resolve the crisis with Russia.

dBSPL · Feb 4, 2022

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that Ukraine supports Turkey's proposal to move the Tripartite Contact Group meeting on the Donbas conflict from Minsk to Istanbul.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov expressed it this way: "The Ukrainian side is ready for talks in Istanbul. And also in Geneva and Vienna, in any city where there is neutrality." Reznikov was deputy head of Ukraine's TCG delegation from September 2019 to November 2021.

In January 2022, Turkey sent a proposal to the OSCE for the Tripartite Contact Group to meet face-to-face in Istanbul instead of Minsk. Russia opposed.

In April 2021, then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov stated that after the end of the pandemic, Ukraine would not attend the TCG meetings in Minsk "due to the hostile rhetoric of Belarus". The head of Ukraine's TCG delegation, first president Leonid Kravchuk later suggested that a possible meeting place instead of Minsk could be a city in Poland. In addition to the hostile rhetoric of the Belarusian authorities towards Ukraine, he declared that it is unacceptable to participate in negotiations for a peaceful solution in a "non-democratic" country.

In September 2021, the Ukrainian delegation offered to return to face-to-face talks, and not in Minsk. According to the representatives of the Ukrainian delegation, face-to-face meetings are needed due to the possible violation of the confidentiality of the talks in the virtual environment.