Moscow urges Kiev to offer amnesty to separatists

MOSCOW Moscow urged Kiev on Thursday to offer amnesty to members of separatist movements in eastern Ukraine to accelerate national reconciliation. Following a video conference meeting of the Normandy Four -- Germany, France, Russia, Ukraine – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said foreign ministers gathered to review the implementation of agreements reached at the last presidential summit of the group in Paris in December, where they approved nine steps to push the peace process in Ukraine. Only one of nine points -- a full exchange of prisoners -- has since been conducted, said Lavrov. Other actions which were supposed to be finished by the end of March, were not carried out, including the withdrawal of troops from three disengagement points and defining conditions that will allow local elections in the eastern Ukrainian territory, he said. Lavrov urged Ukraine to engage in direct talks with pro-Russia separatists and intensify work on the political aspects of the Minsk Agreement, arguing it will build a strong foundation for conflict settlement. Minsk Agreement, signed in February 2015 by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany and overseen by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), was drafted to stop hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Moscow, Kiev have been at loggerheads since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula after a controversial referendum. Ukraine blames Moscow for separatist violence in Donbass, a region in eastern Ukraine that borders Russia.