By The Daily Journalist.
The four leaders gathered Wednesday in Minsk to negotiate peace in Ukraine and will sign a joint declaration supporting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, as confirmed by a source in the Ukrainian delegation.
The same source reported that it is preparing a paper on the ‘contact group’ comprising Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, where the commitment of all parties will assert to respect the ceasefire accord in Minsk, Belarus, last September and signed by both the Government of Kiev and pro-Russian separatist leaders of this country.
According to Foreign Minister of Belarus Vladimir MAKEI, the statement is being studied both by the leaders of the ‘quartet of Normandy’ as pro-Russian separatists have also met Wednesday with representatives of Kiev in Minsk. “To achieve a positive document outcome that requires approval of all participants,” said MAKEI.
Federalization but no greater autonomy
So far, we have been learning some aspects of the quadripartite negotiation. Thus, for example, has been leaked that the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, flatly rejected a proposal of federalization for a Ukraine Russia agreement. The tug of war could end, according to some sources, with the acceptance by the Kremlin broad autonomy for the Donbas.
The separatists went directly for the independence of Kiev. The four leaders who participated in the summit are: Ukrainian Petro Poroshenko; Russian leader Vladimir Putin; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; and French President François Hollande. The leaders broke protocol to hold informal consultations before the start of the summit itself.
From the outset, when descending a staircase to the first floor of the building to be photographed for a few seconds in front of the flags of the four countries, cameras could see how Poroshenko marched flanked by Merkel and Hollande, while Putin was visibly isolated from the trio.
Attack on a hospital in Donetsk
Meanwhile, coinciding with the development of the summit in Minsk, It has continued conflict in eastern Ukraine. This afternoon, a hospital has been hit by a bombing in the center of Donetsk, a stronghold of pro-Russian separatists, killing a civilian, as reported by the separatist authorities. “A shell landed in the hospital number 20, causing a fire in a laboratory and the Department of Neurology. A pedestrian who was out of the hospital was killed,” said Iouliana Bedilo, spokesman for the separatist government, claiming that there had been “no fatalities within the hospital. “
