MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz will visit Moscow on May 4-5 to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich announced Friday.
"Federal Minister for Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austrian Republic Sebastian Kurz will visit Moscow for a working visit on May 4-5. The minister is planning to discuss a range of key international issues, with special attention paid to regulating the internal Ukrainian conflict based on the strict adherence to the Minsk agreements of the heads of Normandy four of February 12, 2015, as well as the role of OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] in this process," Lukashevich said.
In September 2014, the Austrian foreign minister had called for peace talks to be held between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in the country's east.
A ceasefire agreement between the conflicting sides was signed in mid-February in the Belarusian capital. The Minsk II accords were brokered by the Normandy Quartet comprising Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
According to UN estimates, more than 6,000 people have been killed and some 1.2 million internally displaced since the armed conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine in April 2014.
