Ukrainian troops observing ceasefire at Boeing crash site - Poroshenko to Merkel
KYIV. Aug 1 (Interfax) - International experts worked at the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crash site in the Donetsk region with the OSCE mission's support on Thursday and Friday, and the Ukrainian armed forces are observing a ceasefire they declared earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.
Merkel thanked Poroshenko for Ukraine's efforts in arranging experts' access to the crash site to conduct an independent international investigation and welcomed the fact of the trilateral contact group's meeting in Minsk, the Ukrainian presidential press service said.
The Ukrainian president expressed the hope that the contact group would continue its work and progress will be made in releasing hostages, it said.
"Merkel highly appreciated Poroshenko's efforts toward maintaining internal political stability and pointed to importance of the parliament's and the government's stable work to pass legislation essential for Ukraine to receive financial support from international financial institutions," the Ukrainian presidential press service said.
Poroshenko said in response that Ukraine has managed to avoid a political crisis.
Poroshenko and Merkel discussed further multilateral contacts and the implementation of the Ukrainian-EU association agreement.