During the Minsk talks on February 11 and 12 on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, nearly derailed the meeting by demanding that the strategic town of Debaltseve be placed under their control, said Leonid Kuchma, former Ukrainian president from 1994 to 2005 and a member of the Contact Group.

"The Contact Group was expected to sign this document [peace agreement] jointly with Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, and to hand it over to the four presidents, who were to meet the press, bless this document and say, 'Folks, let's live as good friends now.' But when we sat down to sign the document, Plotnitsky and Zakharchenko refused, saying that the agreement did not suit them," Kuchma said in an interview with the Podrobnosti Nedeli (Details of the Week) television program on Sunday.

"They began by saying that our servicemen were trapped in Debaltseve and proposed writing down that the military must lay down their arms. Silence followed. The quartet nearly left for home. We took a timeout and finally made just one amendment, although Donbas had insisted on many. The only edit was that the ceasefire would begin at midnight February 15, not at 8 p.m. on February 14. That was the only change. But the situation shocked the participants. The presidents were to meet the press jointly and to bless the decision, but finally each spoke separately," Kuchma said.

He said the leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics "had no desire to negotiate any consensus and, most important, to restore peace in this destitute land."

Talks in the Normandy format to settle the situation in Donbas ended in Minsk on Thursday, producing a declaration in support of the plan to implement the Minsk agreements, signed by the presidents of Ukraine, France and Russia, and by the German chancellor, earlier reports said.

The trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine is comprised of representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Minsk format of talks provides for the participation of Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and OSCE special envoy Heidi Tagliavini, and also representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.