Normandy Four leaders leave Minsk’s Independence Palace

MINSK, February 12. /TASS/. The Normandy Four leaders - Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko - have left the Independence Palace in Minsk. The key negotiations, which started at 8:15 p.m. Moscow time (1715 GMT) on Wednesday, lasted for around 16 hours. President Putin said that despite all difficulties in the negotiating process, "we managed to agree on the main issue." A complex of measures on implementing the Minsk agreements, adopted on Thursday, envisages the withdrawal of heavy weaponry by both sides at equal distances with the goal creating a 50 km security zone for 100 mm caliber artillery systems, a 70 km security zone for multiple rocket launcher systems, 140 km security zone for Tornado-S, Uragan, Smerch systems and Tochka-U tactical missile systems. Read more