MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed talking a TASS correspondent.
"Yes, the conversation took place," he said, adding that a report on the details would follow later.
The Ukrainian president’s website earlier reported that the two leaders had held a telephone conversation.
The two leaders discussed the situation in Donbass and the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the Kremlin said, adding that the call had been initiated by Kiev.
"There was a discussion of the situation in southeastern Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures in light of the upcoming Normandy Quartet foreign ministers’ meeting set to be held in Berlin on June 11," the statement reads.
The Normandy platform for talks on resolving the Ukrainian crisis was set up in June 2014, when the first meeting between the leaders of the four countries took place in the French region of Normandy. Since then, a number of summits and telephone conversations have been held, as well as meetings between foreign ministers.
The last meeting of the four member states’ top diplomats was held in Germany’s Munich in February 2017. The next Normandy Quartet foreign ministers’ meeting is scheduled to take place in the German capital of Berlin on June 11.
According to earlier reports, the foreign ministers are expected to discuss ways to put the "Steinmeier formula" on paper and the disengagement of the parties in the Stanitsa Luganskaya area.
The Steinmeier formula put forward by then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in early 2016, is aimed at the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The mechanism stipulates that a temporary special status will be granted to Donbass on the election day, while the region will receive a permanent special status after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) issues a report confirming the election to be lawful.