KIEV, February 15. /TASS/. Ukrainian president’s press secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko has written on his Facebook page on Sunday that it is too early to draw conclusions after the ceasefire regime in the southeast of Ukraine took effect in accordance with the Minsk agreements.
"The first hours are very important. Therefore, we are watching the situation together with the military. It is too early to draw conclusions," he said.
The ceasefire regime between the conflicting sides in the Donbas region of Ukraine took effect at 00:00 hours, Kiev time (01:00 am, Moscow time) on Sunday.
On Thursday, February 12, the leaders of the "Normandy quartet" - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held many-hour negotiations in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
The Contact Group on the Ukrainian conflict resolution also held a meeting in the Belarusian capital with the participation of Ukraine’s former President Leonid Kuchma, special representative for humanitarian affairs, head of the Ukrainian Choice NGO Viktor Medvedchuk, heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) Aleksandr Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky. Special Envoy of the chairperson-in-office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Heidi Tagliavini and Russia’s Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov acted as intermediaries in the group’s negotiations.
The meetings worked out an action plan to implement the Minsk agreement. The document fixed an agreement on a ceasefire in some areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions starting from February 15, the withdrawal of heavy weapons, as well as measures for Ukraine’s long-term political settlement.