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Normandy Four foreign ministers call for full ceasefire in Ukraine — joint statement

"We express concerns about the latest cases of armed clashes this weekend, including the use of heavy weaponry in the area of Shirokino and the Donetsk airport," the document reads
The Foreign Ministers of France, Laurent Fabius, of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) and of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin TASS/EPA/SOEREN STACHE
The Foreign Ministers of France, Laurent Fabius, of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) and of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin
© TASS/EPA/SOEREN STACHE

BERLIN, April 14. /TASS/. The foreign ministers of the Normandy Four group have called on the sides in the Ukrainian conflict to observe the ceasefire regime in full, a joint statement following the meeting in Berlin says.

"We express concerns about the latest cases of armed clashes this weekend, including the use of heavy weaponry in the area of Shirokino and the Donetsk airport," the document reads.

"We call on all the sides to end the standoff and demonstrate readiness for full compliance with the ceasefire regime and the heavy weaponry withdrawal," the statement says.

OSCE mission

The ministers have also called to pull out heavy weaponry with the caliber of less than 100 mm and also tanks of all types. "We call on the trilateral Contact Group in coordination with the OSCE special monitoring mission to agree this timeframe. We call on all the sides to closely cooperate in the verification process," the document says.

The statement says permanent access should be provided to the OSCE monitors for doing what is envisaged by their mandate and the Minsk agreements.

"We urge the sides to continue and complete the withdrawal of heavy weaponry as soon as possible so that this process is transparent and is controlled by the OSCE mission," it says.

Working sub-groups

The Normandy Four foreign ministers (Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany) have called for setting up working sub-groups as part of the Contact Group as soon as possible.

"We ordered our deputies to continue monitoring the observance of the Minsk agreements, including on swiftly launching working sub-groups and confirmed the support for their actions," the document reads.

"We call on the sides to immediately create working sub-groups as part of the Contact Group and agreed that there will be groups on political process, humanitarian issues, economic issues and amnesty," the statement says.

The Normandy Four foreign ministers said the sides should appoint their representatives in these sub-groups as soon as possible so that they could begin their work.