Normandy Four leaders seek to accelerate Minsk deals implementation

MOSCOW, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine, or the Normandy Four, will discuss possible ways of speeding up the implementation of the Minsk agreements in the upcoming months, the Kremlin said Thursday.

The Kremlin published a joint statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The leaders of the Normandy Four reaffirm their commitment to implementing all aspects of the Minsk agreements, including security, political, humanitarian and economic issues, the statement said.

They welcome the agreement on a ceasefire between government forces and insurgents in eastern Ukraine on Easter and they urge strict adherence to the truce, it said.

After a successful exchange of more than 300 detainees on Dec. 27, 2017, the four leaders called for more active efforts to release the remaining detainees on an all-for-all basis, the statement read.

Kiev launched a military operation in the country's southeast Donbass region in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities. Violence has been plaguing the region since then.

The Ukrainian government and the rebels reached a peace agreement brokered by Russia, France and Germany in September 2014 in the Belarussian capital of Minsk, and a more detailed renewal of the agreement was signed in February 2015.

The Minsk deals envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange, and holding local elections in Donbass, among other measures.

But the deals have never been fully implemented, with Kiev and the Donbass insurgents accusing each other of breaching the agreements. Enditem