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Contact Group on Ukraine begins talks in Minsk

The meeting was scheduled for Friday initially but was cancelled later as no representatives from Kiev had arrived

MINSK, January 31. /TASS/. Contact Group for settling the armed civil conflict in eastern Ukraine has begun a yet another round of talks in Minsk, a TASS correspondent said in an eyewitness account.

Taking part in it are the former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, who is believed to have been appointed the plenipotentiary representative to the consultations by the incumbent President, Pyotr Poroshenko, the plenipotentiary representatives of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Alexander Zakharchenko and Vladislav Deinego, the special envoy of the European security organization OSCE, Heidi Tagliavini, and the Russian Ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, who acts as a mediator at the consultations.

The meeting was scheduled for Friday initially but was cancelled later as no representatives from Kiev had arrived.

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