MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. The Contact Group’s political subgroup will register results of talks in order to avoid discussing the agreements that were already achieved, acting foreign minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Natalya Nikonorova said on Saturday.
"It can be considered as progress that Ukraine’s representative agreed to register positions of the sides after every meeting, basing on the positive experience of such practice in other (sub)groups," Donetsk News Agency quoted Nikonorova as saying.
She noted that this decision may "significantly ease the talks, in particular helping to avoid repeated discussion of those positions that were already coordinated." Donetsk has insisted since 2015 on introducing regulations at Minsk talks and registering achieved agreements.
Nikonorova added that at the meeting in Minsk, DPR proposed "not to drag the negotiations process by excessive detailing, but to start coordinating main modalities that arise biggest disagreements." The sides also presented their draft laws on local election and amendments to Ukraine’s constitution on decentralization at the meeting of the political subgroup on May 17.
Establishing the Contact Group is envisaged by the Minsk accords signed on 12 February 2015, 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 Pyotr Poroshenko. The package of measures also envisages ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.