MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. Russia has appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary Azamat Kulmukhametov its special representative in the Contact Group for the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. He is Azamat Kulmukhametov, an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, according to an instruction signed by the Russian president.

Since 1978 Kulmukhametov has held various positions at the central staff of the Soviet and then Russian Foreign Ministry and performed foreign assignments in Syria, Egypt and Jordan. From 2003 to 2008 he was an ambassador to Kuwait, and from 2011 through 2014, to Syria.

The first meeting of the Contract Group participants was held in Minsk on September 5, 2014, with representatives from Kiev, Ukraine’s south-eastern regions, the OSCE and Russia taking part. The negotiations produced a peace settlement plan for Donbas and a ceasefire agreement. The second meeting of the Contact Group was held in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 12. The parties agreed on a package of measures to implement the Minsk Accords, such as the pullout of heavy weapons and a constitutional reform in Ukraine.