Paris talks: Foreign troops should leave Ukraine, borders will be sealed

French President Francois Hollande announced in Paris on Friday that the parties to the Normandy Four talks had agreed that foreign troops would be withdrawn from Ukraine and the country would gradually retake control of its border.

 "We've agreed [that Ukraine will retake] further control of the border [with Russia] step-by-step, and all foreign troops will be withdrawn from Ukraine," he said.

The parties also agreed that the number of checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border would be raised, while procedures for international organizations would be liberalized. What is more, the sides agreed to speed swaps of prisoners of war and civil hostages.

The talks also tackled gas issues, the French president said. "As the [gas] protocol has already been initialed and signed; now this is a matter of the implementation of the signed agreements. We agreed that a meeting would be held at foreign ministers' level to sum up the results of the previous agreements," he added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Normandy Four format in Paris on Friday.

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