“Normandy Quartet’ foreign ministers agree to intensify work of Contact Group on Ukraine - Lavrov

BERLIN, January 22. /TASS/. Foreign ministers of the “Normandy Quartet” /Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France/ have agreed to support the pull-back of heavy weapons in Ukraine and to intensify work of the Contact Group on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday after the Berlin meeting in the so-called “Normandy Quartet.” “A recommendation was adopted that the Contact Group embracing militias, Kiev authorities, Russia and OSCE /the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe/ should intensify its work so as to fully implement the Minsk agreements and to set up a necessary number of working sub-groups,” Lavrov said calling this decision “rather substantive” as it “initialise the format of the Contact Group in which the militias are involved in direct talks with Kiev authorities.” “A direct dialogue between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, the strengthening of a direct dialogue, is a key to settlement of Ukrainian crisis,” he said. “So I think this meeting was very useful,” he said. Lavrov said the talks focused on prospects for holding a summit in the “Normandy format.” “Our Kazakh partners have invited us to the summit in Astana,” Lavrov said. “A joint opinion is that if progress can be seen in the end of hostilities, in ceasing fire and in stopping shelling of residential areas, civilians in Donetsk are suffering from, and if there emerges progress in withdrawal of heavy weapons, then the summit in Astana will be in demand,” Lavrov said adding “recommendations will be formulated later.” “We have agreed that representatives of the four countries will continue contacts and will oversee the implementation of agreements reached today,” he said. “Nothing matters more but the soonest resumption of Contact Group’s work as well as agreement, which was in principal reached on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact on September 19, 2004, and which should be outlined and should start to be implemented,” the Russian foreign minister said. “If it happens, we can talk about a considerable de-escalation of the current conflict.” Combat actions between the Ukrainian military and militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics during Kiev’s military operation in the country’s east conducted since mid-April 2014 have claimed over 4,800 lives and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, according to WHO data. A ceasefire was agreed upon at talks between the parties to the Ukrainian conflict mediated by the OSCE on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine. Two weeks later, on September 20 the Contact Group adopted a memorandum on implementing a ceasefire. The nine-item document includes a ban on all weapons, pulling back heavy weapons from the line of engagement and setting up a buffer zone of 15 kilometres. It also entrusts the OSCE with a task of controlling implementation of the agreements. On December 9 the parties to the conflict announced “the regime of silence” in the area of Kiev’s combat operation in Donbass aiming to come over to implementation of the Minsk accords. Both Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics declared an urgency to pull back heavy weapons, to exchange prisoners of war and to demilitarise the region. On January 16 the Minsk talks of the Contact Group on Ukraine were frustrated because of the situation around the Donetsk airport and the failure to agree the agenda. In recent days the situation has deteriorated after a passenger bus en route from Donetsk to Zlatoustovka came under shelling on January 13. Twelve civilians were killed and at least 16 wounded. Artillery shelling and bombing strikes at Donbass cities have intensified and dozens of peaceful civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, died in them. Read more