Normandy format group meets in Berlin for talks over implementation of Minsk Agreement

The leaders of the so-called Normandy format group comprising Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France met on Wednesday evening in Berlin for talks over implementation of the Minsk Agreement for eastern Ukraine.

Following the meeting at the Federal Chancellery, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin will also discuss the dramatic situation in Syria.

Further progress is needed on the subject of the cease fire, as well as on political and humanitarian issues, said Merkel on Tuesday, adding that no miracles should be expected from the meeting.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said that he did not expect any simple talks.

A "peaceful, final solution" was not in sight, Steinmeier said.

The leaders of the Normandy format group have undertaken repeatedly high-level phone contacts over the Ukraine conflict in recent days.

The implementation of the Minsk agreement with Ukraine was the focus of the Chancellor's phone calls, which primarily involved questions of strengthening of the armistice, the unbundling of the troops and the necessary next steps to possible local elections in the Donbass region, according to German government spokesman Steffen Seibert.

The Minsk agreement aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine was reached by the leaders of the Normandy group in February 2015 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. However, the peace treaty has not been fully implemented. Endit