Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refuted on Friday reports envisaging that Kremlin Deputy Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak proposed to scuttle the Normandy format talks on settling the conflict in Donbas stating its ineffectiveness

A recent statement by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas when he spoke out against including Russia into the G7 former until the Ukrainian conflict is resolved shows that Germany and other European countries aim to pressure Moscow into making efforts to settle the crisis in Ukraine, experts told Sputnik