Normandy Four Leaders Discuss Situation in Eastern Ukraine

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France discussed in a phone call the situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the statement of the French President's Office.

PARIS (Sputnik) — The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France discussed in a phone call on Thursday the situation in eastern Ukraine and recognized certain progress in the implementation of a ceasefire regime along the separation line, the Kremlin press service said.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko "thoroughly analyzed the situation around the implementation of all Minsk agreements reached on February 12, 2015," the press service said in a statement.

"They noted certain progress in ensuring the implementation of a ceasefire and the pullout of heavy weaponry from the conflict zone," the statement said.

According to the document, the leaders agreed that the working sub-groups of the Contact Group on Ukraine would hold their first meetings approximately in a week, and the assessment of their work would be carried out in three months.

The Normandy Four has held several rounds of talks on Ukrainian reconciliation.

In February, the group worked out a ceasefire deal in Minsk, Belarus, later signed by Kiev and pro-independence fighters of the Donbas region. The truce included a set of measures to stop military confrontation in Ukraine's southeast.

The April 2014 military operation launched by Kiev, has claimed more than 6,000 lives, according to the United Nations.