European Lawmakers Laud Normandy Summit, Recognize Complexity Of East Ukraine Settlement

European Lawmakers Laud Normandy Summit, Recognize Complexity of East Ukraine Settlement

While the leaders of the so-called Normandy Four were cautious to proclaim any breakthroughs in the recently held summit in Paris, Sputnik found many European lawmakers and observers who saw the positive implications that the revived talks had for the possibility of peace in Donbas

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) While the leaders of the so-called Normandy Four were cautious to proclaim any breakthroughs in the recently held summit in Paris, Sputnik found many European lawmakers and observers who saw the positive implications that the revived talks had for the possibility of peace in Donbas.

The talks were the first face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the first movement of the needle on the conflict in Ukraine's east in over three years.

Zelenskyy, elected in April, wasted no time going about fulfilling his lofty campaign promises of ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine and tackling endemic corruption head-on. Drawing much criticism at home, Zelenskyy agreed to a simultaneous withdrawal of forces from the Donbas contact line and the adoption of the so-called Steinmeier formula, which looks to grant the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk a semi-autonomous status and self-determinant elections.

"Zelensky was brave to accept the Steinmeier formula. It must be acknowledged. If you can keep the line I'm sure we will arrive at an optimal solution for everyone in a short time," Gianmatteo Ferrari, a member of Italy's Lega party, told Sputnik.

German parliamentarian and spokesman for the Alternative for Germany foreign affairs committee, Armin-Paulus Hampel, however, was less steadfast and acknowledged the contradicting goals of the parties involved in any Donbas agreement.

"The elections in Donbas don't stand on their own. They are embedded in an overall process... One of these questions would be the level of autonomy granted to Donbas by the Ukrainian Government. Another question would be if Russia would prefer to keep its hand on a valuable but small portion of Ukraine, while the bigger part would enter EU and NATO. An alternative could be a united Ukraine, which would not be strictly aligned with either NATO or Russia," Hampel posited while speaking with a Sputnik correspondent.

At the same time, Hampel lauded French President Emmanuel Macron's efforts in organizing and hosting the summit in the Elysee residence, calling it an achievement of "French diplomacy, not European or German."

Hampel's comrade in Euroskepticism, French member of the European parliament from the National rally party Gilles Lebreton, accented the encouraging signs of agreeing to the further exchange of prisoners and the prospective involvement of the Red Cross in them, as well as the agreement to meet again in four months in Berlin.

The agreement to exchange more prisoners, following the September swap of 35 Russians for 35 Ukrainians, was perhaps the most concrete confidence-building measure the two sides came away with in Paris.

Former European Parliament member from the Czech Republic for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Jaromir Kohlicek meanwhile, cautioned of Zelenskyy's domestic realities as possibly playing an adverse role in the peace process.

"Kiev and west Ukrainian riots are not a very positive signal in this regard. I think for Zelenskyy and his partners, it will be a crucial test of the political stability of this regime, as this question is strictly negatively articulated by right-wing militants," Kohlicek told Sputnik.

Ukraine has been plagued by radical right-wing nationalist groups that have sought to deter the government away from any moves that may resolve tensions with Russia. The groups have not shied away from violence and vandalism against people and establishments they view to be close to Moscow.

The conflict in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known together as Donbas, began in 2014. These regions proclaimed independence after what they considered to be a coup in Kiev, and the Ukrainian government launched an offensive in retaliation. The Normandy format of talks among the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine was established in June 2014 to promote peace in Donbas.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the next summit in this format may take place in Berlin in four months.