The leaders of the self-proclaimed eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics have signed an agreement on settling the political crisis in the country, French President Francois Hollande said Thursday, Sputnik reported.
"This text that was signed by the Contact Group...covers all issues: decentralization, border control [with Russia], and pulling back heavy weapons," Hollande told journalists after the nearly 15-hour reconciliation talks in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
Participants of the Normandy format meeting - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel - have been holding talks for more than 13 hours in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to hammer out a deal on the Ukrainian crisis.
Members of the Contact Group, comprising envoys from Kiev, Moscow, the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, as well as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have also been negotiating in Minsk since Tuesday.