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Kiev proposes expanding talks format on resolving conflict — foreign ministry

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he saw no alternative to the Minsk agreements on resolving the conflict in Donbas

KIEV, January 26. /TASS/. Ukraine proposes expanding the format of negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the crisis in the country’s southeast by involving the European Union and the United States into it, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Sunday.

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“The Normandy format is very efficient. Now we are speaking about the possibility of expanding this format, maybe, in a Geneva context, and involve the EU and the US,” Klimkin told the 1+1 TV channel.

The Ukrainian leadership earlier said Kazakhstan’s capital Astana would host the summit in the Normandy format — Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he saw no alternative to the Minsk agreements on resolving the conflict in Donbas. “We will not allow undermining the Minsk agreements, everything should be based on them,” he said.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk. The ceasefire took effect the same day but has reportedly occasionally been violated.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the OSCE has repeatedly ignored data on military preparations and concentration of Ukrainian forces along the contact line which comes in violation of the Minsk agreements.

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