PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2019) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims that the demonstrations held in Kiev ahead of the Normandy Format summit in Paris became a "trump card" used by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the talks.
Demonstrations were staged in front of the presidential office in Kiev on the eve of the Monday Normandy talks between Zelenskyy, Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The demonstrators were calling on the Ukrainian president "not to give up national interests."
"The Russian side had some arguments, they cited precisely these arguments in detail: someone is shouting, someone is against ... That is, this is a very complicated dialogue with very difficult people ... But it seems to me that these actions [of protest] are only a trump card and an argument, and certainly not for us, that the Russian president used today, " Zelenskyy said at a press briefing after a joint press conference held following the Normandy Format summit in Paris.
The Ukrainian leader stressed that protest actions such as the ones held in Kiev at the presidential office ahead of the Normandy talks make it "impossible" for him to work.
Nonetheless, Zelenskyy emphasized that it is the Ukrainian people's democratic right to hold demonstrations.
