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Joint meeting of Contact Group’s political, security subgroups begins in Minsk

A source close to the talks in the Belarusian capital earlier said the main issue on the agenda would be ensuring security during elections

© EPA/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO

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Moscow concerned about threat of armed actions escalation in Donbass — envoy

MINSK, March 23. /TASS/. Members of the political and security subgroups of the Contact Group on the settlement in Ukraine have begun their joint meeting in Minsk, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"The joint meeting of the working political and security subgroups has got underway in Minsk," the ministry said in its Twitter account.

A source close to the talks in the Belarusian capital earlier said the main issue on the agenda would be ensuring security during elections.

At a meeting of the foreign ministers of the "Normandy Four" (Ukraine, Russia, Germany, France) in Paris on March 3, Contact Group members were set the task to submit to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) proposals to ensure security during the elections in the Donbass region. The participants in the Paris meeting also expected to coordinate the dates of the elections, but Kiev’s stance prevented them from doing so. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Ukraine’s top diplomat Pavel Klimkin spoke out against the proposal to schedule the elections for June supported by other participants in the meeting.

The "Normandy Four" also urged to establish a mechanism to prevent ceasefire violations in Donbass and carry out prisoner exchange.

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