Normandy 4 Expects Significant Ukraine Crisis Settlement Progress – Source

A diplomatic source said that the Normandy Four group hopes to achieve significant progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian reconciliation by summer.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Normandy Four group hopes to achieve significant progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian reconciliation by summer, a Western diplomatic source told Sputnik on Friday.

"We envisioned to have significant progress by summer, but it does not mean that in June everything will be resolved," the source said.

The source added that one of the problems in the settlement process is "the lack of confidence among everyone."

The Normandy Quartet format, comprising France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, was created in 2014 to secure a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine that flared up in April 2014 after Kiev launched a military operation to suppress local pro-independence militias in the country's east.

In February 2015, the Quartet leaders worked out a deal on Ukrainian reconciliation in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Key points of the Minsk deal include a ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, constitutional reforms, including a decentralization of power in the country, and the granting of special status to the Donbass region.