MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly approved Monday a proposal by Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, for the creation of an international contact group on Ukraine, according to Leonid Slutsky, Head of the State Duma Committee for the CIS Affairs.
Naryshkin came up with the proposal as he was speaking at the opening plenary of the OSCE PA annual session in Baku last Saturday.
“An amendment by State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin on the establishment of an international contact group on Ukraine has just been accepted,” Slutsky told RIA Novosti. “Thus the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly supported Russia’s proposal for the creation of this international group of mediators aimed at resolving Ukraine’s political and constitutional crisis,” Slutskty added.
Naryshkin also urged members of the Parliamentary Assembly to facilitate the peace process in Ukraine, adding that the temporary ceasefire between pro-Kiev forces and independence supporters in the country’s east should be further extended.
Last Friday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the extension of a week-long ceasefire until Monday evening. The initial deadline for the truce was to expire Friday at 10:00 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT).
Independence forces have pledged to observe the conditions of the new truce.
