KIEV (Sputnik) – The Normandy Four ministers failed to agree on a number of issues during their Berlin talks, but discussions will continue, particularly on the deployment of peacekeepers in southeastern Ukraine, the country's foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin says.
"I clearly outlined the areas where a [peacekeeping] mission could be and should be useful. And we will continue the discussion," Klimkin said following the Monday Normandy meeting, as quoted by the Ukrainian 24 TV channel.
Ukraine's foreign minister assessed the talks as "highly difficult," adding, however, that this is not unusual and that discussions on disputed issues will continue.
In March, the Ukrainian government requested that the UN Security Council and the EU Council deploy an international peacekeeping operation in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in southeastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, under the deal worked out by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany (Normandy Quartet) in February in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, it is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that has been tasked with monitoring the situation in Ukraine's southeast.
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine is currently overseeing the implementation of the Minsk peace deal, particularly adherence to the ceasefire that came into force on February 15 and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the line of contact between Kiev forces and independence fighters.
In March, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier doubted that a UN peacekeeping operation in Ukraine would be more successful than the present mission of the OSCE.
