Contact Group Meeting on Ukraine Crisis Kicks off in Luhansk

LUHANSK, December 31 (Sputnik) – A Contact Group meeting on settling the crisis in eastern Ukraine has begun in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), the republic's press center announced Wednesday.

"On December 31, 2014, at 11:00 [08:00 GMT] a contact group meeting began in Luhansk with representatives from the [Ukrainian Armed Forces, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Luhansk People's Republic]," a press center statement reads.

Commenting on the latest talks, LPR chief negotiator Vladislav Deinego said reaching any substantial agreements would depend on constructive proposals from the Ukrainian delegation.

The Contact Group convened last Wednesday for a fresh round of reconciliation talks, which Deinego referred to as "difficult." Discussions reportedly focused on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact between conflicting parties in southeast Ukraine, prisoner swaps and an end to Kiev's "economic blockade" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR and LPR).

The previous meetings of the Contact Group on Ukraine took place in Minsk on September 5 and 19. The talks resulted in a ceasefire agreement between DPR, LPR and Kiev.

Ukrainian reconciliation talks have taken place in the so-called Normandy, Minsk, Geneva and Weimar formats so far. The Minsk format grants participation rights to DPR and LPR, and have proven to be effective. Namely, the sides managed to agree on a contentious ceasefire at a Minsk format meeting on September 5.