PARIS, February 20. /TASS/. All points of the Minsk agreements should be implemented, French President Francois Hollande said on Friday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We agreed that all points of the Minsk agreements should be implemented," Hollande said.

Along with it, he told reporters he had no information on the introduction of Russian tanks to Ukraine, adding that there was no confirmation to it.

The Minsk agreements are being implemented at a slow pace because the situation in Ukraine is very difficult, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint press conference with French President Francois Hollande on Friday.

"We share the same position with France on the issue of Ukrainian settlement. The agreements reached in Minsk must be implemented," Merkel said.

"We see how slow this process is, how much effort it requires. However, in the framework of a very difficult situation [in Ukraine], we cannot expect anything else," she added.

 

Minsk agreements on Ukraine ceasefire

On February 12, negotiations were held in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The talks lasted for around 14 hours.

Simultaneously, a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement was held in Minsk, bringing together former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Kiev’s special representative for humanitarian issues Viktor Medvedchuk, both representing the Ukrainian side, alongside representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) special envoy to Ukraine, Heidi Tagliavini, and Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, who acts as a mediator.

As a result, a package of measures on implementing the Minsk agreements was adopted, including on ceasefire in separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting from February 15, heavy weaponry withdrawal and long-term political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.