Ukrainian presidential advisor Ruslan Demchenko was appointed the country's temporary envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Ukraine's crisis in Minsk, local media reported on Tuesday, citing a senior official.
Iryna Gerashchenko, Ukrainian Presidential Envoy for the Peaceful Settlement of the Situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, told Interfax-Ukraine news agency that Demchenko will replace 80-year-old Leonid Kuchma, who resigned from the position earlier this month.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will appoint a permanent Kiev representative to the contact group in the near future, Gerashchenko said.
Demchenko, 53, has served as Ukrainian ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro and first deputy foreign minister before being appointed presidential advisor in September 2014.
The TCG, consisting of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was formed to facilitate a diplomatic solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.