Poroshenko tells Merkel Ukraine proposed holding talks on east, but received no proper response

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 10 on the situation in the Donbas, the press service of the head of state has reported.

"The Ukrainian president said that despite all efforts of the Ukrainian side, the attempts to hold consultations of the contact group on peaceful settlement either through a meeting or even in the format of a video conference found no proper response," the press service said.

Poroshenko assured Merkel that Ukraine was ready for a bilateral ceasefire. At the same time, he said, it is necessary to ensure the monitoring and verification of the bilateral ceasefire regime, control over the border to stop supplies of weapons and militants from the Russian side, the immediate release of all hostages and the beginning of political negotiations.

"President Poroshenko noted that there were egregious violations of international law. As an example, he named the kidnapping by militants in the Luhansk region of Ukrainian Armed Forces pilot Nadia Savchenko and her illegal transfer for detention in the prison of the Russian city of Voronezh," reads the statement.

Poroshenko also said he was outraged at the forced granting of Russian citizenship to Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov in Crimea and his further retention in Moscow's prison.

Merkel, in turn, noted that representatives of the OSCE special monitoring mission did not have access to border crossing points due to the actions of militants.