Ahead of the Alaska meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Marc Cools, has made the following statement on behalf of the Congress:
"We welcome dialogue that would lead to the end of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine and reiterate our position, as underlined by the Council of Europe Secretary General, that any peace negotiations must necessarily include Ukraine, and that any peace deal must be made in agreement with Ukraine. There can be no lasting peace that is not fair.
"We reaffirm our solidarity with the Ukrainian government, local and regional authorities and their national associations working already today with temporarily occupied territories. The Congress will continue to support them in their efforts for Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery, and we stand ready to work with the de-occupied territories if a peace agreement is reached."
