"The ministers discussed [in a telephone conversation] certain aspects of Russian-German relations and exchanged opinions on key international issues. Special attention was given to work in the Normandy format on implementing the Minsk accords and on ways of overcoming the Ukrainian crisis," the ministry said in a statement.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.
