Contact Group on Ukraine Makes Progress on Sub-Groups - DPR’s Envoy

The latest round of the Contact Group on Ukraine’s talks ended on Wednesday with a progress on the launch of sub-groups, but the sides were still unable to agree on some important issues, DPR’s envoy to the talks, Denis Pushilin, said.

DONETSK (Sputnik) — He added that the Donetsk People's Republic hoped that the subgroups could meet face-to-face in the near future.

"We made a decisive effort to launch sub-groups. However, there are still several points on which consensus was not found, tand which are crucial to the parties. We sent our draft proposals, voiced them, they are quite constructive and democratic," Pushilin said after the end of the video conference talks.

Dariia Olifer, the spokeswoman for Ukrainian ex-president and reconciliation negotiator Leonid Kuchma, said after the negotiations that Kiev "calls for the soonest launch of sub-groups on security, policy, economy and humanitarian aspects of the Minsk agreement."

She stressed the process should be overseen by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a regional security group that oversees the implementation of the February ceasefire deal, dubbed Minsk accords.

The next video link between representatives of Kiev and Ukraine's southeastern militias can take place shortly, the spokeswoman added.

The Contact Group was set up last year in a bid to bring conflicting parties in Ukraine closer together. The group has participated in several rounds of negotiations and video conferences.

In February, the Contact Group signed the Minsk deal to bring peace to Ukraine. The 13-point peace plan stipulated ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy artillery, prisoner swaps and constitutional changes in Ukraine.