KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2021) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday that a new four-party summit in the so-called Normandy format was needed for the progress of conflict settlement in the eastern breakaway region of Donbas.
The Normandy format includes France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
"We are convinced that to get things moving a Normandy Four summit is needed. Because despite all the efforts on all other levels we understand that the next step forward requires a decision which has to be reached at a negotiation table with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin," Kuleba said at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Kuleba, who is currently on a working visit in Paris, asserted earlier in the day Kiev's readiness to observe the existing agreements reached within the Normandy group and also the Trilateral Contact Group, another mediation format for the conflict settlement in Eastern Ukraine.
The conflict began in 2014, when the Ukrainian army launched an offensive against the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, conventionally referred to together as Donbas, after they proclaimed independence. Their decision came in response to what they considered a coup in Kiev that toppled the old government in February of that year.
In 2015, the parties reached a landmark agreement on immediate ceasefire and exchange of prisoners with the mediation of the Normandy group. The deal was negotiated in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, hence the name. The Minsk Agreements' implementation has been overseen by the Trilateral Contact Group.
