A meeting between the foreign ministers of the 'Normandy four' countries (Germany, Russia, France and Ukraine) on Ukrainian settlement began in Berlin on Wednesday, an Interfax correspondent has reported.

Specifically, the parties intend to discuss the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements, the observance of the ceasefire regime, local elections, amnesty, constitutional reforms, and prisoner exchange. Before that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a bilateral meeting with his German counterpart.

Before the meeting of the 'Normandy four', which comprises Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine, Russian presidential press officer Dmitry Peskov cited the "deplorable situation with the implementation of the Minsk agreements," pointing out the extreme importance of the 'Normandy format' for the settlement of the situation in Ukraine. Peskov said the Normandy process "is currently the main foundation for the search for crisis settlement in Ukraine" and therefore its work is extremely important.

The previous meeting in this format took place in Paris on March 3. The negotiations between the 'Normandy four' countries will become the third such negotiations to be held in 2016. The 'Normandy four' format for Ukraine was formed after the meeting in Normandy in summer 2014 at the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the landing of the allied troops.