KIEV, August 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine expects positive results from the talks with the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and EU officials in Minsk next week, Andrei Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, said on Thursday.

He did not give a straight answer when asked whether Ukraine would unilaterally cease fire for the duration of the talks but said that the peace plan proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was still in force.

“We expect only a positive result from the meeting in Minsk, but the Poroshenko peace plan remains in force,” Lysenko said.

Poroshenko is planning to negotiate a peaceful settlement in Minsk, the presidential press service said.

The president and a “strong team” of three high-ranking EU officials will be going to Minsk “to talk about peace”, it said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev will meet with Poroshenko in Minsk on August 26. Also attending the meeting will be Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger.

Poroshenko’s 15-point peace plan calls, among other things, for release of hostages, disarmament, secure corridor for the passage of militiamen from the combat area, creation of a 10-km buffer zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border, and early local and parliamentary elections.