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Minsk ready for hosting session of Contact Group on Ukraine on Jan. 13 — foreign ministry

The last meeting of the Contact Group and its sub-groups took place in the Belarusian capital on December 22

© Mykola Lazarenko/Ukrainian presidential press service/TASS

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MINSK, January 11. /TASS/. Belarus is preparing for hosting the sessions of the Contact Group on Ukraine and its four working sub-groups on January 13 in Minsk, Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s press service head Dmitry Mironchik told TASS on Monday.

"The Foreign Ministry confirms readiness to host the meetings of the Contact Group on Ukraine and of its sub-groups on January 13 in Minsk, as well as the session of the working sub-group on political issues," Mironchik said.

The last meeting of the Contact Group and its sub-groups took place in the Belarusian capital on December 22.

Establishing the Contact Group on Ukraine and four sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian issues is envisaged by the the Minsk accords signed on February 12 last year, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The Minsk accords also envisage ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbas, and constitutional reform in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.

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