'Normandy Quartet' Officials To Hold Latest Talks On Ukraine Conflict
By RFE/RL
Foreign Ministers from Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine are set to meet on November 29 for the latest discussions on the simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Officials from the so-called Normandy Quartet have met repeatedly since a cease-fire known as the Minsk Agreements were reached in February 2015.
That deal laid out a road map for ending the violence that has pitted Ukrainian government forces against separatist backed by Russia. More than 9,600 people have been killed to date.
But the implementation of the deal has sputtered, as Ukrainian nationalist lawmakers have balked against granting too much autonomy to eastern regions.
And separatists have continued to shell and skirmish with Ukrainian forces, with varying intensity.
The meeting will be held in Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Moscow, Kyiv At Loggerheads Over Planned Crimea Missile Tests
Russia said it has had no response from Ukraine regarding its request that Kyiv cancel a planned missile test over the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Russian Transportation Minister Maksim Sokolov told reporters in Moscow on November 29 that he had expressed concerns over Kyiv's plans to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
On November 24, Ukraine issued a formal notice to airmen on airspace danger zones in connection with the planned tests. Kyiv said the tests will be conducted in accordance with international regulations entirely in Ukraine's airspace over the open sea.
Kyiv plans to test air-to-air combat missile systems.
On November 25, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) condemned Ukraine's plans, calling them "a violation of all international agreements and a unilateral decision to conduct missile firing in Russia's sovereign airspace."
Ukraine's secretary of national security and defense, Oleksandr Turchynov, then called Rosaviatsia's statement "hysteria," saying that Russia's sovereign airspace in the Black Sea ends in the middle of the Kerch Strait, where Kyiv does not plan to hold any tests.