Oleksiy Danilov: The NSDC of Ukraine approved a scenario of the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions
At today's meeting, chaired by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a decision has been made unanimously on three issues submitted to the Council, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov reported.
According to Mr. Danilov, the NSDC of Ukraine, as instructed by the President of Ukraine, developed several scenarios of the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and today one of them has been adopted and "will be implemented as the main one".
In this context, the NSDC Secretary noticed that the key issues for the Ukrainian authorities are, in particular, the return of our prisoners held in captivity in the Russian Federation, Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions; cease-fire; turning over control of the Ukrainian-Russian border to Ukraine, and after that - the issue of elections. "We have a great desire for these elections to take place throughout the whole territory of Ukraine", - Mr. Danilov said adding that: "I would like them to take place in the Crimea as well, but unfortunately it is not possible yet".
"But we do not remove the issue of Crimea from the agenda. This issue is no less crucial for us, - he underscored. - We will defend our land, the land that belongs to Ukraine, we will defend our territorial integrity".
The second issue discussed at the meeting, according to Mr. Danilov, was the creation of a system of territorial defense, and First Deputy to the Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine Colonel-General Mykhailo Koval was appointed responsible for its implementation. By December 31, 2020, he said, all constituent legal and organizational issues should be settled, noticing that "volunteers who would like to join and those who had returned from the front will be involved" in the process.
The third issue put before the NSDC members was the issue of cybersecurity, the NSDC Secretary stated adding that "every day we experience attacks on our cyberspace from certain territories".
Answering journalists' questions, Oleksiy Danilov pointed out that the authorities are ready for any outcome in the context of the Normandy format negotiations - "if we agree; if we partly agree; if we do not agree".
"All government bodies, the Armed Forces, special services are ready for any scenario, - he stated. - Events will evolve depending on how the December 9 talks are conducted and what conditions are reached". The NSDC Secretary expressed his hope that the negotiations, in which a "powerful team" of experts from Ukraine will participate, will be successful for Ukraine.