Normandy Talks? Putin Might Hold Int'l Phone Call Wednesday

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to hold an unspecified international format telephone conversation late on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters amid speculations on a possibility of a new Normandy Quartet meeting.

"I do not rule out an international phone call tomorrow, of which we will inform you further," Peskov said late Tuesday.

Earlier media reports suggested September 9 as the date for the next telephone conversation between the Russian, German, French and Ukrainian leaders under the so-called Normandy framework.

The quartet brokered a ceasefire deal in east Ukraine earlier this year.

Peskov had said earlier that there was a possibility for a Normandy format meeting sometime in the future, but said the issue would only be clarified after a telephone conversation between the four leaders.

The speculation comes against the backdrop of a Trilateral Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Tuesday. The session took place alongside four sub-groups with the inclusion of self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk peoples’ republics (DPR and LPR respectively).

Denis Pushilin, a DPR envoy, said that the security sub-group may also meet on Wednesday to discuss the withdrawal of weapons under 100-mm in caliber from the contact line. He affirmed the group’s commitment to find consensus on the issue for the sides to sign a document on the new arms withdrawal.

The special representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Martin Sajdik, said the political sub-group will meet in a two-day session starting next Tuesday.