VIENNA, January 16./Tass/. A delegation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is ready to head for Minsk for a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on settling the Ukrainian crisis, republic’s negotiator Denis Pushilin has told the Donetsk news agency.

“The main issues are cessation of fire on the contact line, prisoner swap and the status of Donbass (the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions),” Pushilin said, adding that he pinned big hopes on the upcoming meeting.

The Contact Group on Ukraine held a preparatory meeting in Kiev on Thursday and waits from all parties in the process of negotiations confirmation of the attendance of a next round of talks in Minsk, said its statement circulated by the OSCE late on Thursday.

“The TCG stands ready for these consultations and is waiting for the confirmation of the attendance of all signatories of the Minsk agreements,” it said.

The previous meeting of the Contact Group was held in Minsk on December 24. The talks were attended by former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, plenipotentiary envoys of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics - Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, OSCE envoy to Ukraine Heidi Tagliavini and Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov.