Normandy Four foreign ministers to discuss Ukraine crisis in Paris on Tuesday

PARIS, February 24. /TASS/. The foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine are due to hold a meeting in a Normandy format in Paris on Tuesday to discuss the Ukrainian settlement. The upcoming meeting, which is expected to last for several hours, will be the first talks of the foreign ministers after the leaders of the four countries had reached the Minsk agreements. The decisions approved at the February 12 summit in the Belarusian capital included ceasefire, the pullback of heavy armaments, and a constitutional reform that would take into account the legitimate rights of the Donbass population. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Monday that the Minsk agreement had become an "international legal document" following the UN Security Council approval of a Russia-drafted resolution. According to militias, on Tuesday the forces of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics are to begin heavy artillery pullback under the control of the OSCE monitors. A significant amount of heavy weaponry has already been withdrawn from the separation line, militias reminded. Donetsk republic’s Defence Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin has called on the OSCE monitoring mission to "have the most active role in controlling the observance of commitments not only of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, but also of the Ukrainian forces." Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that the Normandy format and the Minsk meeting had the goal to "set rules in order to withdraw from sanctions and enter on a constructive political path." Speaking in New York on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that any sanctions "lead to accumulation of confrontation charge in international affairs, as well as complicate a joint search for solutions to emerging problems." Read more