The U.S. Embassy on the fourth anniversary of the signing of the Minsk Protocol has called on Russia to fulfill its obligations under the agreements and immediately cease hostilities in the east of Ukraine.

"The Minsk Protocol was signed four years ago today to bring peace to eastern Ukraine. But the fighting never stopped, threatening lives and livelihoods of innocent Ukrainians. Russia must live up to its commitments and end the fighting now! #Peace4Ukraine #UkraineNotForgotten," the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said on Twitter.

The Minsk Protocol (Protocol on the results of consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group on joint steps aimed at the implementation of the Peace Plan of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and the initiatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin) was signed in Minsk (Belarus) on September 5, 2014 and provided for the cessation of hostilities in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

Later, on February 11-12, 2015, the second Minsk agreement was signed (a set of measures to implement the Minsk agreements). The document was agreed by the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia in the format of the Normandy Four and signed by the Trilateral Contact Group.