DONETSK, December 19. /TASS/. The Contact Group on Ukraine on Friday started a video conference, Viktoria Talakina, spokesperson for the plenipotentiary envoy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at the talks in Minsk has said.
The videoconference was scheduled to start last week, on December 10. However, it was cancelled.
Earlier, the DPR plenipotentiary envoy, Denis Pushilin, said Kiev was responsible for wrecking the Skype conference.
The exact date of the Contact Group meeting is planning to be determined during the Skype conference.
He said the format of the videoconference would not envision the EU and the USA participation and remain unchanged.
It will better to hold the Contact Group talks on December 22 or on December 23, Pushilin said.
On December 17, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the Skype conference would be held within days. Then date of the Contact Group talks will be determined. The preliminary date was December 21, Poroshenko said.
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on ceasefire and exchange of prisoners during OSCE-mediated talks in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on September 5.
On September 20 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5. The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibres of over 100 millimetres to a distance of 15 kilometres from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.