Normandy Group Reach Verbal Agreement on Ukraine Reconciliation - German FM

MINSK (Sputnik) – The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France did not sign their names to the document accepted in Minsk on Ukraine reconciliation but gave their word, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday.

“No, but we confirmed its implementation verbally,” Steinmeier said when responding to a question whether the document had been signed.

Participants of the Normandy format meeting — Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel – were in talks for more than 15 hours in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to hammer out a deal on the Ukrainian crisis.

The mediators again underscored that a peace settlement was the only way to end the armed conflict in Ukraine, and said they were ready to take both separate and joint steps to achieve a peaceful solution.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 5,400 people, including those aboard the crashed Boeing, since the conflict began in April 2014.

The crunch talks in Minsk were expected to focus on a ceasefire deal that would put an end to bloodshed and create a demilitarized zone in the disputed territories.

A group of envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the self-proclaimed people's republics and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – called Contact Group – earlier said they signed a document on the heels of the Normandy format meeting. The deal stipulates measures that are needed to implement previous Minsk agreements, which were signed last September.