1st LD Writethru: Leaders at Minsk talks in contact over Ukraine: Kremlin

Leaders at the Minsk talks are keeping in touch over the lingering Ukrainian crisis, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

"Four heads of states in the Normandy format plan to hold telephone conversations as soon as all relevant sides start to truly implement the Minsk agreements," the Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

Russia expects all points of the Minsk accord to be implemented, the spokesman said.

Speaking of detained Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko,

Peskov said Savchenko's case would be decided by a Russian court, adding "no promises of Savchenko's prompt release were made at the meeting and the degree of her guilt would be determined by court."

Peskov, as one of the Russian delegates who had also attended the Minsk negotiations, revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made considerable efforts during the summit in order to influence the leaders of independence-seeking insurgents.

During a marathon bargain with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, turned down some crucial proposals made by the mediators of Russian, French and German leaders, said Peskov.

Peskov added that Poroshenko's refusal to hold direct talks with the insurgents has "considerably complicated" the negotiations.

The spokesman denied that Putin has presented any ultimatum to his Ukrainian counterpart.

"The talks were tough enough, very difficult, and the stakes were very high. No one was yielding their interests," Peskov said.

While the Russian side insisted on immediate stop of fighting in Donbass, the insurgents demanded that the ceasefire be postponed until Sunday midnight "for technical reasons", Peskov recalled.

Topped by an "unconditional and comprehensive" ceasefire in eastern Ukraine starting from Feb. 15, the latest deal lists a package of measures aimed at the implementation of the Minsk agreements reached in September last year.

According to the package, the confronting sides in south-east Ukraine must start withdrawal of their heavy weapons off the dividing line no later than the second day after the ceasefire.

After more than 14 hours of discussions overnight in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, the leaders of Russia, German, France and Ukraine also signed a declaration, saying they were strongly convinced that a peaceful settlement is the sole option for the settlement of the Ukraine crisis. Endi