Russian, German, Ukrainian presidents discuss Ukraine peace settlement

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko have had a telephone conversation to discuss a set of measures for peace settlement in southeastern Ukraine that was endorsed at the marathon four-partite talks in Minsk last week, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday.
"They discussed among other things the issues related to the ceasefire, the pullback of heavy armaments by the conflicting sides and the situation in the area of the southeastern town of Debaltsevo," it said.
Also, the three leaders exchanged opinions on the current role of the monitoring mission of the European security organization OSCE. They agreed to continue contacts in various formats for assuring implementation of the Minsk accords.
On Monday night, Merkel, Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande had one more telephone conversation, in the course of which they voiced concern over the continuing combat operations near Debaltsevo.
Besides, they spoke in favor of giving the OSCE monitors free access to the areas where fighting was on.
The official spokesman for the Defence Ministry of the Self-Proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Eduard Basurin, said earlier access to the Debaltsevo area was not safe because of the continued shelling by the Ukrainian Armed.