Normandy Four foreign ministers call for full ceasefire in Ukraine - joint statement

BERLIN, April 14. /TASS/. The foreign ministers of the Normandy Four countries - Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine - in a joint statement after five-hour talks in Berlin on Monday called on the sides in the Ukrainian conflict to observe the ceasefire regime in full. "We express concerns about the latest cases of armed clashes this weekend, including the use of heavy weaponry in the area of Shirokino and the Donetsk airport," the document reads. "We call on all the sides to end the standoff and demonstrate readiness for full compliance with the ceasefire regime and the heavy weaponry withdrawal," the statement says. OSCE mission The ministers have also called to pull out heavy weaponry with the caliber of less than 100 mm and also tanks of all types. "We call on the trilateral Contact Group in coordination with the OSCE special monitoring mission to agree this timeframe. We call on all the sides to closely cooperate in the verification process," the document says. The statement says permanent access should be provided to the OSCE monitors for doing what is envisaged by their mandate and the Minsk agreements. "We urge the sides to continue and complete the withdrawal of heavy weaponry as soon as possible so that this process is transparent and is controlled by the OSCE mission," it says. Working sub-groups The Normandy Four foreign ministers have called for setting up working sub-groups as part of the Contact Group as soon as possible. "We ordered our deputies to continue monitoring the observance of the Minsk agreements, including on swiftly launching working sub-groups and confirmed the support for their actions," the document reads. "We call on the sides to immediately create working sub-groups as part of the Contact Group and agreed that there will be groups on political process, humanitarian issues, economic issues and amnesty," the statement says. The Normandy Four foreign ministers said the sides should appoint their representatives in these sub-groups as soon as possible so that they could begin their work. Kiev’s representation Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told journalists that Ukraine has agreed to appoint its representatives in the working sub-groups as part of the Contact Group. "We agreed that finally four working groups will be set up. I assume that the names of the representatives will be announced at the next Contact Group meeting. Ukraine has also promised to do this," he said. Stances of Moscow, Kiev differ The talks of the Normandy Four in Berlin have confirmed that the positions of Moscow and Kiev on the crisis in eastern Ukraine differ, Steinmeier said. "We had an intense and a sort of contradictory conversation. It showed differences in the opinion of Kiev and Moscow," the German foreign minister said, adding that the meeting confirmed that nothing is easy in the Ukrainian crisis. "This will be a long way but if we do not go this way, the situation may run out of control," he said. Purity of Minsk agreements asserted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was the first among the Berlin meeting participants who addressed the journalists after talks. He stressed that Russia managed to assert the purity of what the four leaders agreed in Minsk on February 12. "The foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine confirmed the commitments to those agreements reached in Minsk and stated that it is important to fully comply with the decisions on ceasefire and heavy weaponry withdrawal," Lavrov said. The important outcome of the talks was the decision to support the initiative on the withdrawal of tanks and weaponry with caliber less than 100 mm in Ukraine’s south-east. However, Lavrov said not only the military part of the Minsk agreements but also the related political, economic and humanitarian issues should be fulfilled. Read more