Advisors to the heads of countries taking part in Normandy talks met in Minsk behind closed doors
Negotiations among the advisers of the leaders of the Normandy format countries ended in Minsk, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.
The Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country, Dmitry Mironchik, relayed to BelTA, the meeting was held behind closed doors and lasted about four hours.
He did not give any other details and the parties have not yet commented on the course and results of the meeting.
The night before the talks, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, stated that the advisers "will mainly discuss security and humanitarian problems."
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, stated earlier that the exchange of hostages and prisoners would be one of the main topics of these talks.
At the last meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on December 5th, it was not possible to agree on a date for the prisoner exchange. The parties only stated that they would carry out this exchange before the New Year and Christmas holidays.
306 separatists from the Donbas will be exchanged for 74 Ukrainian prisoners. Currently, in the separatist-held part of Donbas, pro-Russian forces have detained 168 Ukrainians.
The Normandy format is a series of negotiations on the settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine created in 2014 consisting of representatives of four countries: Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France.