UN ready to increase its presence in Ukraine

This was discussed during the meeting with Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin in New York, the Foreign Ministry press service reports.

"UN Secretary-General assured of his complete support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and announced his readiness to increase the organization's presence with the aim of de-escalating and stabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine," reads the statement.

The parties also discussed a number of issues concerning the use of available and creation of new mechanisms to involve the United Nations in settling the situation in the east of Ukraine.

Klimkin informed the Secretary-General about the progress of negotiations within the framework of the Normandy format, the Trilateral Contact Group, as well as about the current status of implementation of the Minsk Agreements and preparations for the local elections in accordance with international standards.

The parties stressed inadmissibility of Russia-backed militants' hampering of the work of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on the territory of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which for the last months made it impossible to bring humanitarian cargos of UN and other international organizations to civilians.

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