MOSCOW, February 20 (TASS) – Leaders of Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France may hold a meeting in Paris on February 24, a diplomatic source told TASS on Friday.
“The possibility of such meeting is being discussed,” the source said. “It may take place at the beginning of next week in one of European capitals. The date and place being discussed now are February 24 in Paris,” the source added.
On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France discussed the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis by phone. They agreed to hold a meeting “in the nearest future.”
On February 12, negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko were held in the Belarusian capital Minsk. 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.