During a phone conversation on Tuesday 22 August, the heads of state and government of the Normandy-format countries (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) gave their support to a new ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine, according to a joint statement published that evening.
The new ceasefire, which begins on 25 August in the context of the new school year, was officially decided by the trilateral contact group on Wednesday 23 August.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, France's President Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel "expressed hope that the ceasefire would lead to a stable improvement of the situation with security for the benefit of the schoolchildren and the entire civilian population of Donbass", the joint statement says.
On the basis of a stable ceasefire, the Normandy-format heads of state and government will undertake to continue providing personal assistance to the further implementation of the set of measures adopted in Minsk in February 2015, the joint statement says.
A previous decision for a ceasefire had been taken with the return to school in 2016, but it did not last – as have none of the previous ceasefires. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)