We held a telephone conference this afternoon to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine, which is continuing to escalate. After difficult talks, we agreed the following:

1. The parties reiterate that the Berlin Declaration of 2 July remains the joint basis for future action by the parties.

In particular, this includes the following:

- endeavours to reach a sustainable, bilateral ceasefire, as well as agreement by Russia to exert its influence on the separatists in this direction

- extending the work of the OSCE observer mission to also include effective monitoring of border-control activities. This should help to achieve the aim of preventing border violations and the supply of weapons and fighters to Ukraine.

In this regard, all of the parties welcome the preparations undertaken by the OSCE to monitor the Russian-Ukrainian border with the help of drones over Ukrainian territory, and express their willingness to play an active role in this monitoring.

2. All of the parties are working hard to ensure that the Contact Group will speak directly with representatives of the separatists via video conference by tomorrow at the latest. The location for a face-to-face meeting between the Contact Group and representatives of the separatists should also be agreed during this video conference. We have made concrete proposals on a location.

3. The Contact Group and representatives of the separatists should meet in person directly afterwards.

4. All of the parties express grave concern about the humanitarian situation in the conflict region and underline that the most important aspect is the urgent need to establish humanitarian corridors.

Russia agrees that representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy will be given access to the Ukrainian pilot imprisoned in Russia.

5. The parties welcome the good work undertaken by the OSCE to facilitate a prompt exchange of prisoners and hostages.