KIEV, August 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said Thursday that negotiations in Berlin at the level of experts in the Normandy format (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) were successful.
"Talks at the level of experts have finished in Berlin," Poroshenko told journalists in Kiev. "We have a common position with EU on Minsk agreements and, according to information that I have, talks were successful," he said.
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A source in the Russian Embassy in Germany told TASS earlier that negotiations in the Normandy format at the level of experts in Berlin "were constructive." The sides "discussed issues connected with implementing constitutional reform in Ukraine," the source added.
Russia was represented by Foreign Ministry’s legal department head Alexey Dronov and deputy to the Russia’s ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrey Rudenko.
Russia ready to hold Normandy format meeting
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is ready to hold a meeting in the Normandy format at the level of experts. "I think that it necessary because the Normandy Four [Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine] supported the agreements from February 12 which were signed by representatives of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kiev with participation of Russia and OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe]," the foreign minister said.
"We are ready to hold a meeting, at first at the level of experts, to put two documents on the table - Minsk’s Package of measures and those amendments to the Constitution that were adopted by the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament], and also those documents that were adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on holding local election in Donbas and granting special status to these territories," Lavrov said. "Simply comparing [Ukrainian President] Petro Poroshenko’s commitments and what Kiev really did in the end should be very interesting," he noted.