Contact Group on Ukraine to meet again on Donetsk, Luhansk
The Contact Group on Ukraine is set to hold a meeting for talks about the situation in the eastern part of the country.
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The prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic said on Sunday that the meeting would consider granting “special status” to Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk based on the terms of an earlier ceasefire deal.
“A preliminary agreement was to meet again in a span of seven to eight days,” Alexander Zakharchenko said in an interview with Russia’s Kommersant FM radio station.
“They will voice their suggestions. According to preliminary agreements, it will be an extended meeting. The Ukrainian presidential staff will commission some people. So far, I do not know who it will be - the list is being agreed. In any case, Donetsk and Luhansk will send [First Deputy Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic Andrei] Purgin and [speaker of the Supreme Council of the Luhansk People’s Republic Alexei] Karyakin.”
On Friday, the group held a meeting in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, where the members adopted a ceasefire deal and a peace plan.
Meanwhile, heavy shelling has been reported near the airport in Donetsk setting at least two houses on fire, while shelling was also reported in the port city of Mariupol.
The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement on Saturday that he and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had noted in a telephone call that the ceasefire between pro-Russians and the Ukrainian forces was largely in effect.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kiev launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the protests.
Violence intensified in May after the two flashpoint regions of Donetsk and Luhansk held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.
