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Normandy Four to adopt roadmap by end of November — Poroshenko

Normandy Four leaders held talks in Berlin on Wednesday

Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko Mikhail Palinchak/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko

© Mikhail Palinchak/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

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BERLIN, October 20. /TASS/. The Normandy Four leaders have agreed at a meeting in Berlin to devise and adopt a roadmap on implementing the Minsk Agreements by the end of November, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko said on Thursday.

Roadmap

Poroshenko stressed that "there is no alternative to this format." "We must devise and approve a roadmap," the Ukrainian president said. "The foreign ministers should approve a draft roadmap by the end of November. This is a document on implementing the Minsk Agreements. It concerns border (control), contact line, OSCE access, and weaponry withdrawal. All components of the Minsk Agreements on security should be included in the roadmap," he explained.

The roadmap will also establish the sequence of implementing the Minsk Agreements, he continued. "Security comes first, then power will be transferred to lawful representatives during the election. That is, every event has its own turn," Poroshenko said. "After the roadmap is prepared at the level of experts, it will be presented to ministers and then approved by them," he noted.

The Ukrainian president also said that no documents were either planned or signed at the Berlin talks. The Normandy Four leaders agreed that the foreign ministers will meet and prepare everything for the new summit in the next month, he added. "We are now focusing on devising a roadmap," he stressed.

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Police mission

The sides agreed on deployment of an OSCE police mission in Donbass, Poroshenko said. "We will now make an attempt to deploy an armed police mission. The Russian side supported this as well. We expect our partners in Germany to submit this issue for discussion to OSCE," the Ukrainian president added.

Election in Donbass

Poroshenko noted that Normandy Four leaders separately discussed preparations for election in Donbass. "We agreed to continue work at the level of experts, at the level of working subgroups (of the Contact Group) on preparing a concept of election legislation, implementation of the so-called ‘Steinmeier formula’ (introduction of special status in Donbass)," he said.

"Election is not yet discussed," the Ukrainian president said adding that "we will be able to discuss elections only after coordinating the roadmap."

Security zones

The Ukrainian president informed that participants in talks have supported finishing the process of creating three pilot security zones in the regions with OSCE permanent posts.

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"After that, we will start talks on the next four points of disengagement of forces," he said adding that Ukraine insists on including Debaltsevo in the list because this territory was controlled by Ukrainian forces at the moment of signing the Minsk Agreements.

Prisoner exchange

Poroshenko also confirmed adherence to releasing prisoners on the "all for all" basis. "We discussed our proposal to ensure access to them by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We hope this will also facilitate the resolution of issue of people detained on the Russian territory," he added.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine Eastern Ukraine Pyotr Poroshenko

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