"As for the talks on Ukrainian settlement, it is a priority matter for us to ensure that they could be held in Minsk. That is why we are always in a state of a rather high readiness [to hold such talks]… We approximately need less than a day," Mironchik told reporters.
According to the spokesman, as soon as the Normandy Four members take the decision to meet in Minsk, all necessary conditions for effective work will be created.
In April 2014, Kiev authorities launched a military operation against pro-independence militia in Donbas. In February 2015, the two sides reached a ceasefire deal after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy Format — in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
The latest Normandy Four meeting took place on October 19 in Berlin.
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. Both sides of the conflict, however, have been constantly accusing each other of violations of the agreement.
