Meeting of Subgroups on Ukraine to Start in Minsk Wednesday

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry announced that the meeting of subgroups of the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation would kick off in Minsk on Wednesday.

MINSK (Sputnik) — The meeting of subgroups of the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation will kick off in the Belarus capital, Minsk on Wednesday, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.

The formation of the subgroups on political, economic, humanitarian and security issues was stipulated in the February Minsk peace agreement signed by Kiev forces and Donbass militia — sides to the Ukrainian conflict — in Minsk.

The subgroups are working on the implementation of the Minsk agreements to stop the armed conflict between Kiev forces and eastern Ukrainian militias that has claimed over 6,400 lives in Ukraine's east since April 2014.

The agreement to pull back weapons with the calibre less than 100-mm was proposed late July by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, the so-called Normandy Quartet. It also establishes a nearly 19-mile demilitarized zone at the contact line separating Kiev-led forces and Donbass militia in Ukraine's southeast.

On July 28, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the agreement would be signed by August 3 and implemented within 10 days. On August 3-4, the subgroups held their latest marathon talks, but failed to sign the agreement.