PARIS, February 20. /TASS/. Russian and French Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, have spoken in favor of ceasing fire in eastern Ukraine, the Elysee Palace said after their telephone conversation.
The two presidents agreed "on the resumption of the work in the Normandy format," including "on the basis of recent exchanges and Ukraine’s proposals," it said, adding that the president also spoke in favor of "calling a Trilateral Contact Group meeting to receive ceasefire commitments from all the parties."
"The two heads of state will take all useful measures to avoid escalation, reduce the risks and preserve peace," it said.
The telephone call lasted for one hour and 45 minutes.
After that, Macron had a sixty-minute telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse in the morning of February 17. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics report the most massive shelling by the Ukrainian military over the past months. There have been no reports of deaths, but one civilian woman was wounded and the shelling damaged some civilian facilities.
Amid the mounting threat of combat actions, the self-proclaimed republics on Friday announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia. On Saturday, the Donbass republics announced general mobilization.