MINSK, September 20 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's former president Leonid Kuchma representing the negotiations of the Contact Group meeting in Minsk said that the implementation of the Minsk memorandum signed on Saturday night, will start in a day.
"During the day and through the night," Kuchma responded when asked when the implementation of the agreements would begin.
The Contact Group on the Ukrainian crisis began a new round of talks in Minsk on September 19. Kiev authorities and pro-independence fighters in southeastern Ukraine have agreed on complete ceasefire, establishment of the buffer zone, withdrawal of heavy weapons away from the contact line on both sides, and deployment of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring mission.
Early Saturday morning representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics and the OSCE aligned positions and formulated a memorandum of nine provisions that will regulate the implementation of a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine.
The trilateral Contact Group first met to discuss the situation on Ukraine on September 5 agreeing upon a ceasefire in east Ukraine which began that same day.
The five-month conflict has killed over 3,000 people so far, in addition to damaging Ukraine's economy.
