LOC02:11
23:11 GMT
PARIS, Aug 22 (KUNA) -- The leaders of France, Russia, Germany and Ukraine, making up the Normandy group, late Tuesday held a conference call to discuss the situation in Eastern Ukraine, where ethnic Russia militants are locked in a lengthy war with Ukrainian forces.
President Emmanuel Macron, of France, said in a statement here that he had spoken about a potential cease-fire in Eastern Ukraine this evening with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko.
"They expressed their full support for the imminent decision -- on August 23 to announce a ceasefire for the occasion of school resumption" in Eastern Ukraine, Macron's office said.
All of the Normandy group participants, who have been working for several years to seek an end to the conflict, said they hoped "this cease-fire will turn into a veritable improvement in the security situation and would benefit school children and all the population of Donbass," in the ethnic Russia zone.
Over 10,000 people have so far been killed in the four-year-old Eastern Ukraine conflict and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. (end)
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