Implement Minsk accords on Ukraine: Normandy format leaders

The 'Normandy format' foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine Tuesday renewed calls to implement the Minsk accords and reinforce the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) monitoring mission in Ukraine, to solve the Ukrainian crisis, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

"We, the four ministers, call for the strict implementation of all provisions of the Minsk agreements, starting from a comprehensive ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons," Fabius said, according to a Xinhua report.

"We ask for a reinforcement of the special monitoring mission of the OSCE and for extending its mandate with additional personnel, equipment and financing," he added, pledging more four-way initiatives "to ensure that this mandate is extended rapidly".

Fabius and his counterparts from Germany, Russia and Ukraine, under the Normandy format, discussed the situation in Debaltseve, a strategic town in Ukraine taken by pro-Russian rebels.

They also called on rival camps "to fully cooperate with the OSCE, with a view to fully implementing its mandate, especially regarding monitoring and verification of the withdrawal of heavy weapons".

More than a week after the latest Minsk ceasefire agreement, separatist rebels said Tuesday that they had begun pulling heavy weapons from the front line in east Ukraine.

However, Ukraine military sources said the military would start withdrawing heavy arms from the front line no earlier than two days after a complete ceasefire.

The pullback of heavy weapons is believed to be a part of the ceasefire deal agreed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande Feb 12 after marathon talks in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

The deal, aimed at ending the 12-month-old conflict that has killed over 5,700 people, included a ceasefire from Feb 15, clear time lines for elections in eastern Ukraine, border control and prisoner exchange.