BERLIN (Sputnik) — Later on Monday, Ayrault and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier will pay a visit to Ukraine.
"This [visit] will become an important step in preparation for the Normandy Format ministerial meeting to be held in Paris on March 3," Ayrault told reporters.
The Normandy Quartet format, comprising Russia, Germany, France 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 forces in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
In February 2015, the Quartet leaders worked out a deal on the Ukrainian reconciliation in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The 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 for the Donbass region.
The four Normandy format countries' diplomats last met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany last Saturday.
