Normandy Four Foreign Advisers In Close Contact Regarding Kerch Incident - German Cabinet

Foreign policy advisers of the so-called Normandy Four group of countries working to settle the Ukrainian crisis are in constant and close contact regarding the Kerch Strait incident, a spokesperson for the German cabinet told Sputnik Thursday.

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2018) Foreign policy advisers of the so-called Normandy Four group of countries working to settle the Ukrainian crisis are in constant and close contact regarding the Kerch Strait incident, a spokesperson for the German cabinet told Sputnik Thursday.

On Monday, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the foreign affairs advisers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany would meet in the near future to discuss the incident, in which Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border on their way to the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov, on November 25.

"Foreign policy advisers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany are in close and constant contact on the Ukrainian issue. These meetings are closed to the press, so we, in principle, cannot provide information about it," the spokesperson said, without specifying the date of the next meeting.

The Kerch Strait incident came into the spotlight after the Ukrainian vessels and their crews were detained by Russia after failing to respond to a demand to stop. In response to the incident, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the decree declaring martial law in several Ukrainian regions located near the Russian border, and the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

On December 1, during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she welcomed the conduct of the negotiations between foreign affairs advisers of the Normandy Four German, Russia, Ukraine and France about the situation in the Sea of Azov.