President of Ukraine Ready to Meet with Each Leader of Normandy Format Separately

If it is not possible to organise a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy format countries (Ukraine, Germany, France, Russia) on the settlement of the situation in Donbas, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to meet with the leader of each country separately.

“In any case, a Normandy format meeting is being prepared. It should be held. I will say as I told our Western partners: if there is no Normandy format meeting, I will find a format when I meet with each of the leaders of the Normandy format,” the Head of State said at a press conference within the Forum “Ukraine 30. Culture. Media. Tourism.”

He also reminded that the aggravation in Donbas began after the decision of the National Security and Defence Council to close three pro-Russian TV channels and impose sanctions against pro-Russian MPs Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak. “I do not want to link [the aggravation] with this [decision], but we see that it happens at the same time,” said the President of Ukraine, adding that on Wednesday, 10 March, the situation in Donbas will be discussed during the next round of talks of the Trilateral Contact Group, though he considers the Normandy format summit necessary.

As reported, the last summit of the Normandy format leaders took place on 9 December 2019. Earlier, Zelensky said that there had been some progress in the issues of Donbas after the Paris summit, but then the Normandy format started decaying.

Bohdan Marusyak