German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said the opening of a contact line in Donbas, which was closed by the Russian-led forces over the pandemic, will be one of the issues during the Normandy Four foreign ministers video summit scheduled for April 30.
"The closure of the contact line has particularly affected the elderly... Therefore, we will discuss the reopening of the contact line and issues of entry and exit checkpoints," he said, according to Deutsche Welle's Russian service.
The activity of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, which should be allowed unhindered work throughout Ukraine, will be another topic of negotiations.
"It is impossible to implement (Minsk) agreements without an objective assessment by the SMM. Mutual distrust is too high," Maas said.
The minister said Russia should influence the armed groups operating in Donbas.
According to him, the ministers at the summit are willing to give a clear political mandate for the implementation of other decisions made by the Trilateral Contact Group.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the so-called Normandy format meeting, which will be held via video link with the participation of the Normandy Four foreign ministers, is scheduled for April 30.
