On 19 November 2018 the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in ARC Borys Babin and the Chief Consultant of the Department of International Connections of the Mission Valeria Pakhomova met with Ertugrul Apakan, the Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the officer of SMM OSCE.

During the meeting, Borys Babin told about the current activity of the Mission and cooperation with the Kherson OSCE team. The situation with the Azov Sea and Kerch Straight was discussed in the context of illegal impact of the state-aggressor on the trade navigation and other forms of sea usage in the districts, neighboring the occupied Crimea. The environmental situation caused due to the activity of the “Tytan” plant and other enterprises of the Northern Crimea was also reviewed.

The Permanent Representative emphasized the interaction among the governmental bodies of Ukraine and SMM OSCE to block the Russian tanker “Mechanic Pogodin” which is the property of the entity that is in the sanction list. The sides discussed the role of SMM OSCE in protecting the rights of IDPs from Crimea as well as the help, provided to the families of political prisoners of Kremlin. In his turn, the Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan expressed support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and promised to serve to strengthen all monitoring processes within the SMM OSCE mandate.