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First new disengagement zone agreed during Minsk talks

"Work is under way to agree on others," Kiev delegation's spokesperson said

MINSK, February 13. /TASS/. Participants of Wednesday’s eastern Ukraine reconciliation talks in the Belarusian capital of Minsk managed to agree on the first out of three new disengagement areas along the line of contact, the Ukrainian delegation’s spokesperson Darya Olifer said.

"We have practically agreed on one of the disengagement zones in the area of the Gnutovo village, which was earlier proposed by the Ukrainian side," she wrote on her Facebook page. "Work is under way to agree on others."

Initially, representatives of Ukraine, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Russia and the OSCE signed a framework agreement on the disengagement of forces and weapons on the contact line in Donbass back in September 2016. However, it was implemented only at the end of last year as Russia stipulated its fulfillment as a condition for holding the Normandy Four summit.

Participants of the latest Normandy Quartet summit (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France), held in the French capital Paris in late 2019, agreed on the need to continue the process. Among other things, the sides agreed to withdraw their personnel and weaponry from three more areas by April. This is one of preconditions for holding the next summit.

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