PARIS, July 04. /ITAR-TASS/. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held joint telephone conversations with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday. Hollande and Merkel “called for soonest fulfilment of the agreements” reached at the four-sided meeting in Germany’s capital, Berlin, last Wednesday.

“In talks with the Ukrainian president importance of holding a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine before July 5 was noted in order to map out conditions for a ceasefire,” the Elysee Palace said in a communique.

“At the same time with this, direct contacts between Ukraine and Russia would be useful,” the press release noted.

Meanwhile, Hollande and Merkel noted they supported the mechanism of ensuring border controls on Russian-Ukrainian border envisaged in the Berlin agreements.

 Foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine agreed at the four-side meeting in the German capital on July 2 to take steps on the path for settlement of domestic Ukrainian crisis. The negotiators in Berlin agreed to hold talks within the tripartite Contact Group before July 5, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a news conference after the meeting. “We agreed on the scope of measures,” he stated, noting that “Constructive talks were held, all participants in the meeting understand which responsibility we bear.” In his words, the meeting reflected “adherence to ceasefire” in east Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin noted in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande that it was important to fulfil the Berlin decision on the need for a long-term ceasefire and holding a next meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine no later than on July 5, the Kremlin press service said on Thursday.

 

Angela Merkel insists on ceasefire

Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel insists on an immediate resumption of talks on a ceasefire between the conflicting parties in Ukraine and the establishing of peace, Steffen Seibert, an official spokesman for the German government said Friday.

He also said Merkel was calling for an earlier possible meeting of the contact group that would include representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Simultaneously, the German Chancellor repeated a routine warning about the preparedness to impose new sanctions against Russia.

“We’ll keep up our consent and readiness for introducing new restrictive measures if need be,” Seibert said.