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Russian President Vladimir Putin said leaders of Normandy quartet (Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine) have agreed to meet in Minsk next Wednesday, provided that certain positions are agreed upon by then, Interfax news agency reported Sunday.
"I have just finished a (telephone) conversation with leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine in the so-called Normandy Format. We have agreed that we will try to organize a meeting in the same format in Minsk, probably next Wednesday, if by then we have agreed upon a number of positions," Interfax quoted President Putin as saying during his meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi.
The format of negotiations got the "Normandy" name after a meeting between the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine on June 6, 2014 in French Normandy during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the landing of the Allied forces that made a decisive contribution to the liberation of Europe from fascism.
During the telephone talks, "the four leaders agreed that joint work to prepare the comprehensive measures aimed at settling the crisis in southeastern Ukraine will continue at the expert level in Berlin on Feb. 9. This will be followed by a meeting of the Contact Group (on Feb. 10). The aim is to prepare the conditions and substance for the planned summit in the Normandy format in Minsk on Feb. 11," a Kremlin statement said.
In Sochi, Putin requested his Belarusian counterpart to help hold the planned meeting, while Lukashenko, for his part, promised to properly organize it.
"I can reassure you that ...we will do our utmost to get them out of the situation. So you may not even have to worry about the Minsk event. We will organize it on Wednesday evening, as proposed, " Lukashenko said.
Meanwhile, an online statement of the press office of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also confirmed that the four leaders agreed during their telephone conference to meet next Wednesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
"The parties expect that their efforts during the Minsk meeting will lead to an immediate and unconditional bilateral ceasefire," the statement said.
Expectations for a new progress in resolving the Ukrainian crisis have risen following a flurry of international efforts recently to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict in southeastern Ukraine which has claimed over 5,300 lives and left 1. 5 million people displaced since April 2014.
On Friday, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held "constructive and substantial" talks in Moscow with Putin over the Ukraine crisis for nearly five hours, during which proposals put forward by the Russian leader were reportedly discussed intensively.
Just one day before that, Hollande and Merkel paid a surprise visit to Kiev on the same day when the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in the Ukrainian capital to talk with Poroshenko about U.S. military support to Kiev, a move analysts believe exposing a potential, or maybe long-lasting rift between Washington and its European allies over Ukraine.
Both of the European leaders brokered a first ice-breaking meeting with Putin and Poroshenko in June 2014. Enditem
