The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine have continued their discussion on achieving a peaceful settlement to the crisis in eastern Ukraine on the basis of the Minsk agreements, including a sustainable political process.

"The ministers called on the Trilateral Contact Group to establish Working Groups on relevant aspects of the Minsk agreements," reads a joint statement from the foreign ministers, published by Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis on Twitter on Thursday morning.

In the document, the ministers reiterated their support for the Trilateral Contact Group and called on all signatories of the Minsk Agreements to meet in the coming days "to implement the ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry in accordance with the line of contact as agreed in Minsk on September 19 and create the conditions for a full implementation of the provisions of the Minsk agreements."

The ministers noted with serious concern that their call for full observance of the ceasefire has not been followed, and that fighting in Donbas has severely escalated, causing the loss of many lives including civilians.

"This must stop immediately and the ceasefire must be restored," they said.

Furthermore, the ministers called on all sides to cease hostilities and withdraw heavy weaponry in accordance with the Line of Contact as stipulated in the Annex to Minsk Memorandum, September 19, 2014, to be monitored by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and supported by agreed mechanisms on the ground.

"The ministers reiterated that tangible progress on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements must be achieved ahead of a planned summit meeting in Astana, in particular by the creation of the relevant conditions for an effective ceasefire, an agreement on modalities for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the continuation of the release of detainees," the foreign ministers of "Normandy Four" stressed.