Poroshenko, Putin, Hollande, Merkel hold telephone talks – Kyiv
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has held four-party telephone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian presidential press service said on Monday.
Poroshenko said that peace remains his goal as before, “but all the parties must comply with the main points on the agreed peace plan” if this goal is to be achieved, the presidential press service said.
Poroshenko expressed regret that the agreements reached during the previous four-party talks have not been fulfilled.
“In conclusion of the talks, the parties agreed that consultations of the contact group should be organized shortly with the participation of former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov and OSCE special envoy Heidi Tagliavini, in order to attain the following targets: the unconditional bilateral ceasefire, the release of all illegally held hostages and the launch of controls on the Ukrainian-Russian border with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s monitoring and verification,” the presidential press service said.
An agreement was also reached that the four countries’ foreign ministers will start work without delay to detail the mechanisms of attaining the targets set in the telephone talks, the press service said.
The first four-party talks were held on June 25.
Reports said earlier that the Ukrainian president, guided by the National Security and Defense Council’s decisions, extended the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, introduced on June 20, until 10 p.m. June 30.