Normandy Four Talks on Ukraine Crisis Settlement Continue

MINSK (Sputnik) – No documents on Ukraine crisis settlement have been signed during Minsk talks yet, OSCE representative Heidi Tagliavini said.

“So far there’s been nothing,” Tagliavini said.

According to a RIA Novosti correspondent, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Hollande left the venue of the Normandy meeting in Minsk.

Talks of the Normandy four on Ukraine reconciliation continue in a broader format as German Chancellor Merkel, French President Hollande, Russian President Putin Ukrainian President Poroshenko and the countries' foreign ministers have reconvened in Minsk.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dodged a question posed by RIA Novosti news agency in Minsk on Thursday on whether Kiev will sign the reconciliation agreement on the Ukrainian crisis.

“We’ll see,” Poroshenko responded.

Representative of the the Organization of Security and Co-operation of Europe (OSCE) in the Contact Group on Ukraine crisis Heidi Tagliavini has joined the Normandy group talks. OSCE representative earlier left the venue where a Contact Group meeting was being held with representatives from Russia, Ukraine, and Ukrainian self-proclaimed southeastern republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“Of course they’re continuing,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told RIA Novosti.

The Contact Group has not agreed or signed a document proposed by the Normandy Group on Ukraine reconciliation yet, a source familiar with the negotiations process told RIA Novosti on Thusday.

“The Contact Group has not yet agreed or signed the document,” the source said.

Kiev has rejected Russia’s proposal on reversing limitations on the eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics’ status, the source said. “Kiev dislikes Russia’s proposals on reversing limitations and the status of Donbas.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that so far there is “no good news” coming from the reconciliation talks on the Ukrainian crisis in Minsk, but there is some hope, Agence France-Presse reported Thursday.

“Unfortunately there isn’t any good news. So far no news, but there is hope,” Poroshenko said, citing several “unacceptable conditions” set forth from the Russian side.

Ukrainian reconciliation talks in Minsk of the 'Normandy four' will continue, as well as other negotiation formats to end the crisis in the country, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

“We will continue to work, we have been working non-stop in all the possible formats,” Klimkin said, responding to a question of whether the Normandy meeting had ended.

According to media reports, a document accepted by the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine will attempt to reach a ceasefire agreement starting from February 14. The document also proposes to pull back heavy artillery and create a security zone.

It is unclear if this document is the finalized edition of the agreement that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel signed.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has returned to the hall of the Independence Palace in Minsk where German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande remain after Ukrainian reconciliation talks in Minsk, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Thursday.

Poroshenko entered the hall, then left it and began speaking with someone over the telephone near the doors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already left the palace. Merkel and Hollande remained in the negotiations room.

Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov and the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, arrived in Minsk on Thursday for Contact Group talks, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.

The leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine have handed over a reconciliation agreement to the Contact Group to review, a source in Minsk said.

"The document has been passed to the Contact Group for review and signatures," the source told RIA Novosti.

Participants of the Normandy format meeting — Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – have been in talks for more than 13 hours in the Belarusian capital Minsk to hammer out a deal on the Ukrainian crisis.

Members of the Contact Group, comprising envoys from Kiev, Moscow, the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics, as well as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have also been holding talks in Minsk since Tuesday.