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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Contact Group on Ukraine members sign adopted measures to fulfil Minsk accords

The document was signed by OSCE representative Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s ex-president Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov and leaders of Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics

Leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in Minsk EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

Leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in Minsk

© EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

MINSK, February 12. /TASS/. Members of the trilateral Contact Group on the Ukrainian conflict settlement signed on Thursday a four-page set of measures to implement the Minsk agreements.

The document was signed by Special Representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Heidi Tagliavini, Ukraine’s ex-president Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, as well as the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky.

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The first point of the document sets the condition of an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire starting at 00:00 hours (Kiev time) on February 15, 2015. The conflicting parties have agreed on the withdrawal of all heavy weapons.

A separate point of the document provides for the release and exchange of all the hostages and illegally held persons based on the "all for all" principle that should be completed on the fifth day after the weapons withdrawal at the latest. The sides also agreed on restoring the Ukrainian side’s control over the state border throughout the conflict zone.

Another point of the document provides for the withdrawal of all foreign armed groups and mercenaries from Ukraine’s territory under OSCE supervision; all illegal armed groups shall be disarmed.

The set of agreed measures envisages Ukraine’s constitutional reform with the country’s new constitution talking effect by late 2015. The key element of the new constitution is power decentralization and adoption of permanent legislation on the special status of some districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

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