KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th December, 2019) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko says the upcoming Normandy Four summit on Ukraine will solidify the achievements the new Ukrainian government has made in the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
"Leaders [of the Normandy Four summit] note the successful disengagement [of forces] at three locations and suggest identifying next disengagement sites. ... Next, leaders demand to identify more locations for mine clearance," Prystaiko said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Ukrainian "Evropeyska Pravda" publication.
He also pointed to the recent successful prisoner exchanges in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, also known as Donbas.
The Ukrainian foreign minister emphasized that the upcoming Normandy Four meeting will not change the Minsk agreements but a document on some new initiatives is expected to be signed.
The next Normandy Four summit between Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany, will take place on December 9 in Paris.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the upcoming summit on Ukraine with the new European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen.
Deputy Prime Minister on European and Euro Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday that the draft of the statement that will be released after the Normandy Four summit this month does not contain any breakthrough ideas.
The Normandy format was created in 2014 by Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine to formulate a solution for the conflict in Donbas, which started in the spring of 2014, when the Ukrainian government launched a special operation against the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics that refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, saying that they came to power as a result of a coup.
