The group takes its name from a meeting of the countries' leaders in Normandy / Photo from eurointegration.com.ua

All obstacles in the way to a summit in the so-called Normandy format have been removed during the recent round of Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) talks in Minsk on the settlement of the Donbas crisis.

"All obstacles to the Normandy summit have been removed at a Trilateral Contact Group meeting today – the withdrawal of forces and equipment near the villages of Zolote, Petrivske, and Stanytsia Luhanska has been the last step in that direction. A meeting of Normandy Four leaders in the near future will accelerate the settlement of all pressing issues to resolve the conflict," Darka Olifer, the press secretary of Ukraine's envoy to the TCG Leonid Kuchma, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, November 12.

Read alsoNormandy Four summit needed to move from Minsk agreements "strangling" Ukraine – ruling faction leader Arakhamia

Видео дня

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 23 that the Normandy Four summit (of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany) would take place after a ceasefire and the disengagement of forces in three areas in Donbas: near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote, and Petrivske.

The withdrawal of forces of the Ukrainian army and Russia-controlled occupation forces near Stanytsia Luhanska occurred in June. The troops were pulled back near Zolote in late October. Disengagement near Petrivske and Bohdanivka was held from November 9 to November 11.

The previous meeting of the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in the so-called Normandy format took place in October 2016. The group takes its name from a meeting of the countries' leaders in Normandy, in western France, in 2014.