Trilateral Contact Group Ready for New Round of Consultations in Minsk

MOSCOW, January 31 (Sputnik) — The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine is ready to go to Minsk on Saturday to carry out new round of consultations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said in a statement Friday.

"The Trilateral Contact Group is ready to depart for Minsk (Republic of Belarus) tomorrow [on Saturday] in order to have another round of consultations and finalize the agreed arrangements with the signatories of the Minsk Protocol and Minsk Memorandum of 5 and 9 September 2014, aimed at the implementation of Ukrainian President's peace plan," the statement read.

The document which may be signed on Saturday includes a list of concrete steps designed to provide for the implementation of the priority tasks aimed at de-escalating the situation, according to the statement.

A new contact group meeting comprising representatives from Kiev, Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Russia and the OSCE was supposed to take place Friday. On the same day, Kiev authorities stated that there was "no sense in holding a meeting," as the DPR and LPR sent their representatives instead of leaders, which violates the format of the group. Luhansk's representative told journalists that Kiev was avoiding negotiations.

The September 2014 Minsk agreements implied a ceasefire between Kiev and independence militias in southeastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry along the line of contact.

Despite the ceasefire, fighting in southeastern Ukraine's Donbas region intensified in the first weeks of January.