Ukraine Crisis Talks: Normandy Format Talks in Minsk Enter Ninth Hour

Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France began much-anticipated talks on Wednesday, on a peace plan that could end the deadly 10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Negotiations in the Normandy format on crisis reconciliation in Ukraine looked to push on into the night, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said.

“The talks will probably continue into the morning,” Karasin told journalists.

According to Ukrainian Ambassador to Belarus Mikhail Ezhel, all current talks and consultations on Ukrainian crisis are likely to result in a document acceptable to all parties involved in the negotiations.

“The Contact Group is finalizing the document to be immediately submitted to [Normandy Four] leaders who will either approve it or reject it,” Surikov told RIA Novosti.

Surikov added that Contact Group envoys are focusing on practical implementation of the Minsk agreements, including working out details and procedures involved in weapons withdrawal as well as ceasefire framework and datelines.

Before the summit began, Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko and exchanged a few words, Rossiya-1 TV channel reported. Putin sat in front of Poroshenko, while Hollande and Merkel sat on a sofa between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov talked with his German colleague Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

The leaders were later joined by their respective foreign ministers.

Earlier it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, comprising the so-called Normandy quartet, had arrived in Minsk to hold talks on Ukrainian reconciliation.

President Poroshenko met with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko before the reconciliation talks at the Minsk Palace of Independence.

The envoys of the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, are meeting separately with OSCE representative Heidi Tagliavini, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov and former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.

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