DONETSK, December 24 (Sputnik) — The participants of the talks on reconciliation in crisis-hit Ukraine have not decided on the date for the next meeting, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)'s envoy at the Minsk peace talks said Wednesday.
The so-called Contact Group on Ukraine, which comprises envoys from Russia, the Kiev government, the self-proclaimed Ukrainian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), met on Wednesday in Minsk for a fresh round of reconciliation talks.
"We held a tough preparatory meeting, and would prefer not to disclose the details and results until the next meeting as it would be rather inappropriate in regard to other sides," the Donetsk News Agency cited Denis Pushilin as saying following the Wednesday talks.
"The date and time for the next meeting are still undetermined, they are being discussed," Pushilin said.
The DPR envoy said earlier in December that the new round of Minsk talks would focus on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact, prisoner swaps, the end of "economic blockade" imposed by Kiev on the breakaway provinces, as well as on giving them a special status.
The Contact Group on Ukrainian crisis reconciliation previously met in the Belarusian capital Minsk on September 5 and 19. The meetings ended with a breakthrough agreement on a ceasefire, which has largely held in eastern Ukraine, although the warring parties have since accused each other of violating the truce.
