12 of February. Meeting "Norman four" lasted for 16 hours. The leaders of the Russian Federation, Germany, Ukraine and France held talks on the Ukrainian conflict all night. In the last hours of the Quartet have been joined by OSCE special envoy in the contact group on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine Heidi Tagliavini.
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The agreements achieved
At the meeting managed to agree on one thing: the ceasefire in the conflict zone. There will be a ceasefire from midnight 15 February. Also, agreements were reached on the withdrawal of heavy weapons and on measures to long-term political settlement. This was announced by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
"In my opinion, agreed about many things. First, a ceasefire with zero hours on 15 February," - said the President of the Russian Federation. The second is the withdrawal of heavy weapons "from the today's contact line for Ukrainian troops and from the line marked 19 September 2014 in Minsk agreements – for the militia of Donbass".
Vladimir Putin also referred to the reached agreements on the issues "associated with long-term political settlement of the conflict".
"First of all, is related to the solution of border issues in coordination with the militias, humanitarian issues, implementation (putting into action) of the previously adopted law on the special status of Lugansk and Donetsk" - said Vladimir Putin.
Measures to implement Minsk agreements
These measures provide for:
- withdrawal of all heavy weapons by both parties to the conflict on an equal distance, that will help to create a security zone width at least 50 km for artillery systems caliber 100 mm and more, 70 km for MLRS and 140 km wide for MLRS "Tornado-S", "Tornado", "Hurricane" and tactical missile systems "Point" ("Point").
The withdrawal of heavy weapons must begin no later than second day after ceasefire and to be completed within 14 days. In signed the document stresses that "the OSCE will promote this process with support from the trilateral contact group".
In the document as a separate paragraph highlighted that "the OSCE should implement effective monitoring and verification of the process of ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons with the use of all necessary means, including radar systems, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), etc.
An early ceasefire
"I want to urge both parties to quickly end the bloodshed and move the peace process settlement of the conflict" - said Vladimir Putin.
The Russian leader expressed the hope that both sides will exercise restraint until the entry into force of agreements to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
The involvement of the military experts
Vladimir Putin said that during the meeting it was decided to involve military experts to assess the situation in Ukraine.
"With the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, we have agreed that we will give the order to military experts – I am ready to do my part in order to identify what is actually happening and try to develop at least some measures of verification of decisions, of compliance therewith by both parties" - said the President of Russia to journalists.
How did the negotiations
The negotiations "Norman Quartet" consisting of the presidents of Russia, Ukraine, France and Chancellor of Germany was carried out in a variety of formats (in a narrow format and with the participation of members of delegations), a total of 16 hours. The meeting started on 11 February at 19:15 hours local time (20:15 Moscow time).
