Humanitarian mine clearance, protection zones around schools and kindergartens, and the exchange of prisoners - these are a few of the positive measures introduced in Ukraine over the past year during Slovakia's presidency of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Peacekeeping efforts in the five year-old conflict in eastern Ukraine quickly became the main priority of the Slovak presidency, with Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák and his team visiting the troubled region four times during the year and introducing a total of eight measures. Speaking on Tuesday, ahead of the 26th OSCE Ministerial Council due to take place on 5-6 December in Bratislava, the foreign minister stated that Slovakia was focused on those particular people in Donbass who were suffering the consequences of the conflict the most. He referred to the reconstruction of a bridge in the town of Stanytsia Luhanska in Luhansk region as a symbol of the efforts of the Slovak OSCE presidency.
Foreign Minister Lajčák - who is also the OSCE's Chairperson-in-Office for the course of the Slovak presidency, which expires at the end of this month - expressed hope at the press briefing that the ongoing peacekeeping efforts will continue to make progress. He said he believes that the Normandy Four leaders will manage to agree on concrete steps at their upcoming meeting in Paris so that the positive developments in eastern Ukraine can continue. Noting that such a summit hasn't been held since 2016, Lajčák pointed to the fact that the leaders of Russia and Ukraine felt in the past that they were unable to agree on much or to fulfil what they did agree on. The situation changed, says Lajčák, with this year's election of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who campaigned for office on the platform of terminating the conflict with Russia and establishing peace between the two countries. He added that President Zelensky has taken many courageous decisions in this regard since his election, although "he has paid for them with a portion of his popularity."
