17.10 'Normandy Four' Confirm Adherence to Minsk Agreements

MILAN, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - Participants of the talks in the so-called "Normandy format" agreed on Friday the importance of strict adherence to all points of the Minsk Memorandum on ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"We have just finished a two-hour meeting in the 'Normandy format' where three key decisions have been made," Poroshenko said after the meeting with leaders of Russia, France and Germany on the sidelines of the ASEM summit in Milan.

"The first decision was that all sides will firmly adhere to the Minsk Memorandum and concentrate their efforts on the implementation of all 12 points of this document," Poroshenko said.

The Minsk Memorandum was adopted on September 19 as a follow-up to a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

The document stipulated the creation of a 30-kilometer (18-mile) buffer zone, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from residential areas and the deployment of an OSCE monitoring mission in southeastern Ukraine.