Updated 3:50 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the implementation of the Ukraine reconciliation plan with members of the Russian Security Council, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
“President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with permanent members of the Council. The implementation of the southeast Ukraine peace plan, including provisions of the "Putin plan," was discussed at the meeting,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and other senior Russian officials.
Late on September 19, representatives from Russia, Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) met in Minsk for another round of talks aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. The meeting resulted in the signing of a memorandum outlining nine provisions to ensure the implementation of the ceasefire agreement reached during the previous Contact Group meeting in Minsk on September 5.
The memorandum is also based on the peace plan proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the initiatives unveiled by the Russian leader on September 3.
In May, Poroshenko unveiled his 15-step peace strategy, which envisaged security to all participants of the negotiations, amnesty to those who surrender arms and did not commit serious crimes, as well as a 10-kilometer buffer zone along the Russian-Ukrainian border, among other things.
A seven-point plan by President Putin, urged Kiev to withdraw its troops from the country's southeastern regions and calling on the militia to cease its military advance.
The plan also presupposed the participation of an international monitoring group, the establishment of a humanitarian corridor, a ban on the use of combat aircraft over urban areas, the exchange of prisoners in an "all-for-all" formula and direct access to destroyed infrastructure for repair crews in the country's war-torn areas.
