Normandy Four foreign ministers agree to meet soon

The foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine held a conference call on Thursday, during which they agreed to hold a new foreign ministerial-level meeting of the Normandy Four soon.

In line with relevant instructions from the four countries’ leaders, Sergey Lavrov, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius and Pavel Klimkin agreed to work out recommendations for the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement designed at implementation of all provisions of the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements signed on February 12, itar-tass reports.

Regular talks of the participants of the Contact Group on settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine were held in Minsk on February 10-12. Talks of the Normandy Four leaders (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) on the Ukrainian issue also ended February 12 in Minsk.

At that meeting of the Contact Group, a 13-point set of measures on implementation of the Minsk agreements were adopted, in particular, the agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including enforcement of the special self-rule status for certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

The document was signed by OSCE Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, ex-Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador in Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, as well as self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics' leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky.