MOSCOW/KIEV, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, known as the Normandy Four, will hold a phone conversation next Monday to discuss the conflicts in eastern Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Friday.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko disclosed the convening of the phone meeting, saying that he will demand a real ceasefire in Donbas, including the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
A civil war broke out in Donbas between government troops and pro-Russian separatists following the February 2014 revolution that led to the fall of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Violence has been plaguing the region since then.
The Normandy Four or the Normandy Format is a diplomatic group of leaders from the four countries set up to resolve the Ukrainian crisis in accordance with peace deals reached in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, in February 2015.
Several rounds of Normandy Format meetings have been held so far, but mutual accusations of ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian government and the Donbas insurgents made these meetings largely fruitless.
