BERLIN, January 22. /TASS/. Foreign ministers of the so-called Normandy Quartet (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) have called on all sides to the conflict to stop combat actions in eastern Ukraine, a joint statement of the foreign ministers circulated on Thursday says.
“Ministers call on all sides involved to cease hostilities and to withdraw heavy weapons in accordance with the Line of Contact as stipulated in the Annex to the Minsk Memorandum, September 19, 2014,” the statement reads.
The foreign ministers “note with serious concern that their call for full respect of the regime of quiet has not been followed, and that, to the contrary, fighting in the Donbass area has severely escalated causing the loss of many human lives including civilians. This must stop immediately and the regime of quiet must be restored.”
They “call on all actors on the ground to fully respect it.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Ukraine’s Pavel Klimkin and France’s Laurent Fabius noted that “tangible progress on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements must be achieved ahead of a planned summit meeting in Astana, in particular by the creation of the relevant conditions for an effective cease-fire, an agreement on modalities for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the continuation of the release of detainees.”.