Lavrov arrives in Berlin for Normandy Four ministerial talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Berlin for talks in the Normandy Four format, a source with the Russian delegation told TASS on Saturday.

“Sergey Lavrov arrived in Berlin for talks in the Normandy Four format,” the source said. “A meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius has been scheduled to be held before the ministerial meeting.”

Lavrov and Frank-Walter Steinmeier are having a meeting in Berlin before the talks in the Normandy Four format (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany), a source with the Russian delegation told TASS on Saturday.
Russian Foreign Minister is having a meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Berlin, a source told TASS.

Foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany called the Normandy Four will focus on the political part of the Minsk agreements.

“Our countries’ leaders have agreed that the talks would focus, first of all, on the political part of the Minsk agreements,” the Russian foreign minister said earlier. “This applies to elections, the status, constitutional amendments, amnesty issues and exchanges of detainees, all that is needed for creating the right atmosphere for the implementation of all aspects of the February 12 Package of Measures.”

Talks of the Normandy Four leaders on the Ukrainian issue along with regular talks of the Contact Group on resolving the Ukraine conflict took place in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 12.

The talks ended by adoption of a 13-point package of measures, which contained in particular a ceasefire starting from February 15, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line disengaging the Kiev troops and militias of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as measures on long-term political settlement in Donbass.