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Photo from President of Ukraine website
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on first steps toward returning peace to the Donbas, including continuing with the Normandy format.
Zelenskyi plans a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron in the near future, his press service wrote.
According to Zelenskyi’s adviser Oleksandr Danyliuk, the resumption of the Normandy format is a key priority for the president. The Normandy format is a diplomatic group of senior representatives of the four countries – Ukraine, Germany, Russia, and France – meeting to resolve the war in Donbas.
The group was created on June 6, 2014, when leaders of the four countries met on the margins of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day allied landings in Normandy.
The last meeting of all four heads of state in the Normandy Format was Oct. 19, 2016. The last direct contacts between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia was a telephone conversation between former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 21, 2016.
