Normandy Four Fail to Elaborate on Sending Peacekeepers to Ukraine - Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the meeting in Berlin that the idea of sending a peacekeeping mission to southeastern Ukraine was not elaborated upon during the Normandy format talks between the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

BERLIN (Sputnik) – The idea of sending a peacekeeping mission to southeastern Ukraine was not elaborated upon during the Normandy format talks between the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the meeting.

"Our Ukrainian colleague mentioned it [idea of sending peacekeepers], but it was not elaborated upon and other colleagues did not comment on it," Lavrov told journalists after the Monday talks.

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.

Nevertheless, Russian Foreign Minister and his German, Ukrainian and French counterparts have reiterated their commitment to the peace agreements on Ukraine, signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in February.

"The final statement made by [German Foreign Minister] Frank-Walter Steinmeier today on behalf of our Normandy Quartet gives reason to hope that conclusions will be made and that what the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, France and the German Chancellor agreed upon will be put into practice still, albeit not without problems," Lavrov said after the Monday Normandy format talks in Berlin.

Steinmeier told journalists following the Berlin talks on Monday that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements in solving the conflict in Ukraine.

The German Foreign Minister, along with his Russian, French and Ukrainian counterparts, called upon the Contact Group on Ukraine to urgently create four working groups to facilitate the implementation of the Minsk peace accords and to improve the security situation in southeastern Ukraine.

"We call on the participants to urgently finalize an operational concept on the working groups within the Trilateral Contact Group as soon as possible. We agree that the four working groups on security; political process; humanitarian issues; and economic affairs and rehabilitation must be launched as soon as possible," an official statement issued following the Monday Normandy talks said.

According to the statement, the Normandy ministers expect the participants in the working groups to be appointed as soon as possible.

"The immediate appointment of participants by the sides and agreement on working group coordinators will facilitate a quick start of the working groups," the statement said.

The agenda of the Monday Normandy format talks between Sergei Lavrov, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, and Pavlo Klimkin focused on the implementation of the Minsk peace accords, including setting up working sub-groups within the Contact Group on Ukraine.