MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) – The leaders of Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine, dubbed the Normandy Four, confirmed their commitment to fulfill the Minsk Agreements in regard to eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement.
“The commitment to fulfill the Minsk Agreements on settling the situation in southeastern Ukraine was confirmed. The importance of the contact group continuing its work was emphasized. The need for the strict adherence to a ceasefire during OSCE monitoring was also emphasized,” the statement reads, referring to a telephone conversation late Thursday evening between Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
An armed conflict broke out in the southeastern regions of Ukraine in April, when Ukrainian forces launched a military operation against Donbas independence supporters. On September 5, the two conflicting sides agreed on a ceasefire during a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk.
The Contact Group, comprising delegations from Russia, Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held another meeting on September 19, which resulted in the adoption of a nine-point memorandum specifying the provisions of the ceasefire. Among other conditions, the memorandum stipulated the creation of a 30-kilometer (19-mile) buffer zone from the line of contact, the withdrawal of heavy military equipment from residential areas and the deployment of an OSCE monitoring mission in the conflict-torn regions.
