KIEV (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the two leaders held a telephone conversation. The diplomatic counsellor of French President Francois Hollande also took part in the telephone conversation at the french leader's request.
"The sides agreed to bolster diplomatic efforts in the Normandy format and contact group format in a bid to implement Minsk agreements, notably the security component," the statement reads.
Kiev launched a military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.
