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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Ukraine Contact Group videoconference confirmed by DPR for Tuesday morning

The exact time is being specified now, says Denis Pushilin, envoy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic

Denis Pushilin EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

Denis Pushilin

© EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. The Contact Group on Ukraine will hold a videoconference today, envoy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday.

"A Skype conference of the Contact Group will take place today in the morning, the time is being specified now," Pushilin told TASS in a phone conversation.

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The videoconference was initially scheduled for Monday, but was postponed.

The DPR envoy said on Monday that "the Ukrainian side confirmed its participation in the talks." Kiev will be represented by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.

Pushilin said DPR and the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) have no objections to Kuchma. "Kuchma will represent Ukraine. His status of an official representative [of Kiev] was approved by a decree from July [last year], and his powers were confirmed by OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe]," he added.

Latest peace agreements

On February 12, negotiations bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko were held in the Belarusian capital Minsk. The talks lasted for over 14 hours.

Simultaneously, a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement was held in Minsk, bringing together former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Kiev’s special representative for humanitarian issues Viktor Medvedchuk, both representing the Ukrainian side, alongside representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) special envoy to Ukraine, Heidi Tagliavini, and Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, who acts as a mediator.

As a result, a package of measures on implementing the Minsk agreements was adopted, including on ceasefire in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting from February 15, heavy weaponry withdrawal and long-term political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.

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Eastern Ukraine

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