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Preparations under way for new round of Minsk talks — Ukraine FM

The exact date has not been set yet, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin Maxim Nikitin/TASS
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin
© Maxim Nikitin/TASS

BASEL, December 5. /TASS/. Preparations are under way for another round of Minsk talks to settle the situation in Ukraine, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Friday, though without setting the exact date.

“We are working on its organization but we cannot give an exact date,” Klimkin said, noting that the meeting would probably take place next week.

“This should be an important meeting to give a huge impetus to our current efforts (to negotiate a settlement),” the minister added.

A contact group of Ukrainian, Russian and international officials has met twice in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. On September 5, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in Ukraine’s east, the parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The ceasefire took effect the same day but reportedly has occasionally been violated.

On September 19, the Contact Group in Minsk adopted a memorandum outlining parameters for implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine, laid down in the September 5 Minsk Protocol. The nine-point document in particular stipulates a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibres of over 100 millimeters to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.