Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba would like to see Russian President Vladimir Putin during future negotiations in the "Normandy" format, as he will not allow the meeting to be completed without concrete decisions. As an example, Kuleba cited the 2019 Paris summit, when the discussion on the settlement of the conflict in Donbass lasted for several hours. Russian President Vladimir Putin does not leave the negotiating table until agreements are reached. Therefore, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Kuleba admitted, he would like to see the head of Russia at the summit of the Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany).

“We, in principle, do not care how many participants there will be, the main thing for us is that President Putin is sitting at the table. He has such a trait: if he already sits down at the table, he tries to get up because of him with an agreement, and then a solution can be sought, ”the Ukrainian minister said in an interview with the RBC-Ukraine news agency.

At the same time, he stressed that now there is no question of changing the "Normandy format", which was created for the peaceful solution of the armed conflict in the south-east of Ukraine.

According to Kuleba, the experience of the 2019 Paris summit has shown how persistent Putin is. Then the negotiations lasted until late at night on December 9. The leaders of the Normandy Quartet tried to reach a compromise in the current situation of aggravation in the Donbass.

The summit was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and French leader Emmanuel Macron. After several hours of negotiations, the parties agreed to fulfill several conditions.

First, it was argued that the Minsk agreements remain the basis for the settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict and the "Normandy format" as a whole. Secondly, as a result of the negotiations, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the militias were to withdraw their forces at three points of the contact line by the end of March 2020.

Third, the parties reaffirmed their commitment to a complete ceasefire by the end of the year. True, Zelensky admitted that he does not know how to control this. “Because 20 times everyone agreed on a ceasefire during these 5.5-6 years. And 20 times this cease-fire was broken, ”he noted.

One of the important agreements was the organization of a new exchange of prisoners according to the formula "all for all." This was supposed to take place before the end of 2020, that is, in less than a month. In addition, the Red Cross was given full access to all detainees.

The discussion of the Minsk agreements in February 2015 lasted much longer - almost a day. Almost the same people took part in them, with the exception of the presidents of Ukraine and France. At that time they were Petro Poroshenko and François Hollande, respectively. In addition, the head of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, acted as the host party at the talks.

Lukashenko said in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel that the meeting took place with food breaks. “We ate scrambled eggs, cheese, dairy products, drank several buckets of coffee to keep ourselves in good shape,” he said, noting that the products were of Russian and Belarusian origin. Lukashenka noted that "no one drank alcohol."

If all the participants in the meeting managed to eat, then only experts had a chance to sleep. They slept in shifts. “Because the head should be bright when formulating such documents. The heads of state did not manage to rest, ”Lukashenka added.

The meeting began on February 11, and only by noon on February 12 did all the participants in the discussion leave the negotiating room. Vladimir Putin immediately said that the parties agreed on a ceasefire from zero hours on February 15, and that "heavy weapons should be withdrawn from the contact line for Ukrainian troops and from the line marked in September last year."

In addition, the leaders of the countries have developed a package of decisions related to the political settlement of the conflict. In particular, they agreed that Kiev will carry out a constitutional reform that will take into account the rights of residents of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics. Then humanitarian issues and the implementation of the law on the special status of these territories should be resolved.

bbabo.Net