OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2015. President Petro Poroshenko has held a meeting with President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert who is on his two-day visit to Ukraine.

The Head of State has expressed gratitude to the people of Germany for their support and solidarity with Ukraine. "Ukrainian-German relations have never had such a level of trust as now," Petro Poroshenko stressed. He has underlined the crucial part of Germany and France in the process of peaceful settlement in Donbass and the unity of the entire Europe in the Ukrainian issue.

The President has conveyed words of gratefulness to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the participation of Germany and her personal participation in resolving the situation in Ukraine, as well as for the support of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The President of Ukraine has also informed the President of the Bundestag on the current situation in Donbas in the context of compliance with the ceasefire regime and withdrawal of heavy weaponry following the Minsk negotiations. He has drawn attention to the violation of the "silence mode" by terrorists and the escalation of the situation in the area of Debaltseve.

In the course of the meeting, the parties have discussed the interaction in the context of Germany's ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. The Head of State has expressed hope that the Bundestag would ratify the Agreement shortly. In his turn, the President of the Bundestag has informed that voting on the given issue was scheduled for March 27 and assured that German parliamentarians paid significant attention to the enhancement of German-Ukrainian relations.

Norbert Lammert has also assured President Poroshenko that Germany took a strong stand on the positions of Ukraine in the issues of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. According to him, Germany does everything for the position of Europe in this issue to be consolidated. "Conflict in Donbas is not just an issue of Ukraine. It is an issue of the whole Europe. We all see that Ukraine wants to be modern and European, but Russia is afraid of that and doesn't want that," Norbert Lammert said.

Speaking of the liberation of Ukrainian pilot, deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament Nadiya Savchenko, the President of the Bundestag has emphasized that the position of Russia on that issue should be consistent. "If Russia is a serious partner, it should have demonstrated that," N. Lammert noted.

The meeting has also been attended by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Valeriy Chaly, Commissioner of the President, people's deputy Iryna Gerashchenko, Director of the Department of Policy and Communications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleksiy Makeyev, member of the Bundestag, Head of the German-Ukrainian parliamentary group Karl-Georg Wellmann and Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine Christof Weil.