Yesterday at 19:23
Representatives of France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine met on Wednesday in Paris for the first in-person Normandy Format talks on the Ukraine peace process since January 2021. Negotiators spoke for eight hours before emerging to reaffirm their commitment to the Minsk deals as the basis for further negotiations, despite disagreements on how they should be implemented.
This was reported by the corespondents of UA.
They also voiced their support for observance of the now-frayed June 2020 ceasefire deal and agreed to meet again in two weeks time in Berlin.
Crisis Group expert Olga Oliker says the lengthy discussions and limited results reflect the distance between the parties, but in light of a continuing Russian build-up near Ukraine and tense diplomatic engagement between Moscow and Western capitals, the fact of the meeting, and the promise of more negotiations, is positive, but overall the standoff is still extremely dangerous and the menace of a Russian escalation in Ukraine still looms.
Andriy Yermak Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine says:
“This has already happened – this is already a quite positive signal. It is very important. To be honest, I was reminded when we finished that this is the first communique we had been able to agree on since December 19, today we already have 2022. + I am one of those people who need to achieve the main result, so I am always reserved. But I believe that today we have taken a very correct, very confident step and we will continue to work on it. It wasn’t easy. I have already repeated this a million times, we are among those people who cannot be put under pressure. Probably, all our interlocutors understand this. we do nor eveт give the opportunity to think that we can be putten under pressure. We represent a strong, independent, proud country. And this feeling gives us the opportunity to take such a position”.
Oleksandr Merezhko, Head of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation says:
“The most important thing is security work, now, at least in the security subgroup, because we are working to strengthen the ceasefire, to strengthen the silence. This is an issue that remains within the TCG, and it is of great importance. Concerning the release of Kremlin captives, this is also an issue that I hope will be unblocked sooner or later, and we hope that it will be resolved.
The issue of socio-economic problems, it can also have some progress in solving these problems, and the worst situation we have, of course, in the political subgroup, because Russia is blocking, Russia, in fact, refuses to discuss seriously, for example, the action plan proposed by Ukraine. But still, this mechanism remains, and it can be unblocked any time. It depends on Russia’s political will”.
Andriy Kostin Head of the Ukrainian Delegation to the TCG says:
“Negotiations have been difficult, but it is important that the sheer fact that the renewal of the work of the political advisers in the Normandy format is a very important signal that the deescalation around the ucrainian borders needs to be defused and reduced. One of the main issues in the discussion was the issue of unconditional observance of the regime of silence and ceasefire. You remember that in December last year an agreement was reached at the level of the Tripartite Contact Group at its meeting on 22 December. We are now seeing a reduction in ceasefire violations, but these violations continue, so support from our partners, Germany and France, has been very important, and the Russian Federation itself has also supported the position on the need for strict preservation of the ceasefire”.
