Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the White House on September 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev is willing to restart negotiations in the Normandy format to find the ways out of the conflict in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas, the presidential press service said Tuesday.

"It is time to agree in a substantive manner for ending the conflict, and we are ready for the necessary decisions during the new summit of the leaders of the four countries," Zelensky said during a meeting with political advisers to the heads of Normandy format countries.

The foreign policy adviser to the German chancellor Jens Plotner, the diplomatic adviser to the president of France Emmanuel Bonne and the head of the Ukrainian President's Office Andriy Yermak participated in the meeting.

During the talks, Yermak reaffirmed that the Ukrainian side remains committed to the political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict, stressing the need for a complete ceasefire, the release of hostages and the opening of the crossing points in Donbas.

Yermak, Plotner and Bonne agreed to continue contacts within the Normandy format at the level of advisers to agree on modalities for organizing the next summit of the Normandy Four leaders.

At the summit of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, known as the Normandy Four, in Paris on December 9, 2019, the parties issued a joint declaration and agreed to meet four months later in Berlin in order to continue work on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine.

The declaration envisaged an updated demining plan, a cease-fire in the region by the end of the year and a separation of forces by the end of March 2020, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the demarcation line, a prisoner exchange and local elections, among other measures.

The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014.

It is claimed that more than 14,000 people have been killed and 40,000 wounded in the conflict.