REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MINSK -- A new round of talks aimed at ending a protracted Moscow-backed separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine got underway in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Wednesday (24/12), a foreign ministry spokesman said.
"The meeting has begun," Belarussian foreign ministry spokesman Dmitry Mironchik told AFP.
Russia's envoy in Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, OSCE envoy Heidi Tagliavini, former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma and senior separatist negotiator Denis Pushilin were taking part in the talks.
Kremlin-backed separatists in Lugansk and Donetsk, who have declared their own republics, want Ukraine to become a loose federation, a scenario firmly opposed by Kiev.
Previous rounds of peace talks in Minsk have so far failed to end the eight-month-long conflict which has claimed more than 4,700 lives since April.
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