The first meeting of Putin and Zelensky was held in Paris: what was agreed

On December 9, a summit of leaders of Norman-format countries is taking place in Paris. The meeting is attended by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French leader Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Around 21: 00 local time (15: 00 New York), the first meeting between Putin and Zelensky ended.

Photo by: kremlin.ru

A summit in the “Normandy format” is being held in Paris today for the first time since 2016, writes “Kommersant". The parties discussed the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk agreements behind closed doors; the meeting lasted more than two hours. Then the first bilateral negotiations between Presidents Putin and Zelensky took place; they lasted about an hour and a half.

Putin and Zelensky shook hands before the start of negotiations, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The protocol set aside about 45 minutes for the meeting of the presidents, however, according to Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, the conversation is not limited in time.

According to Russian news agencies, from the Russian side, Alexander Novak, Alexey Miller, Vladislav Surkov, Yuri Ushakov, Sergey Lavrov and Dmitry Peskov participated in the meeting. Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky discussed a joint declaration, the press service of the Champs Elysees told reporters: “Yes, discussions are on a joint declaration.”

After negotiations with delegations, Presidents Putin and Zelensky held face-to-face talks that lasted less than half an hour.

After a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, negotiations began in a quadripartite format at dinner, after which a joint press conference was held.

Photo by: kremlin.ru

Putin, when asked how his meeting with Zelensky went, replied: “Okay, businesslike.”

"Good! In a businesslike way: Putin spoke about meeting with Zelensky pic.twitter.com/R3obo6ZSx4

- Дмитрий Смирнов (@ dimsmirnov175) December 9, 2019

“The bilateral meeting between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Normandy format in Paris has ended,” Zelensky’s press secretary Yulia Mendel wrote.

Following the press conference

Participants in the Normandy format summit agreed to adhere to the Steinmeier formula, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference in Paris following the meeting, writes RIA News.

“We have achieved what we have been talking about here in Paris for many years, namely the implementation of the Steinmeier formula. This happened thanks to the courage of Ukraine, because this is the Steinmeier formula, it is very interesting... It is about the sequence in which we implement different measures,” Merkel said.

She added that specifically we are talking about an “addition to the Minsk agreement,” in particular, about temporarily giving Donbass a special status for the duration of local elections, and after the OSCE evaluates these elections, it will be possible to introduce a special status on a permanent basis.

“This was now accepted by Ukraine and agreed upon with Russia, it was a big breakthrough,” the chancellor said.

Photo by: kremlin.ru

Breeding, exchange, ceasefire

The communiqué following the meeting states that the parties reached an agreement on the exchange of prisoners in the “all for all” format. Such an exchange, the document says, should take place this year - before December 31, writes Air force.

In addition, the parties managed to agree on a ceasefire and a partial separation of forces in the Donbass.

The Ukrainian media, citing sources in the Ukrainian delegation, said that Vladimir Putin proposed to disperse forces along the entire contact line, but Kiev did not go for it.

However, as evidenced by the text of the communiqué, the parties agreed on three new disengagement sites. Which ones exactly are not specified. As of now, the disengagement of forces has already occurred in three areas in the Donbass - Stanitsa Luganskaya, Zolotoye and in the Petrovskoye area.

The separation of forces in the new areas should take place before the end of March next year.

The parties also agreed to support the creation of new checkpoints along the demarcation line and stated that they “consider it necessary to incorporate” the Steinmeier formula “into Ukrainian legislation.”

The next summit, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany agreed to hold in four months.

Photo by: kremlin.ru

“This is not enough for me”

“There are many issues that we have not been able to resolve today. I’m sure we will definitely do this in the future,” Vladimir Zelensky said following the meeting.

He also noted that Ukraine would never make some concessions in the negotiations - in particular, he stated the impossibility of federalization and the impossibility of seizing Ukrainian territories.

“We all know that for every Ukrainian, both Crimea and Donbass are Ukraine,” Zelensky added.

“Many topics were discussed today... The result for the first meeting is not enough for me, I want to solve more problems. But we discussed all these issues, they are on the agenda.”

Among the issues on which it was not possible to agree was border control.

“The President of Russia and I have different views regarding the transfer of borders, about when this is possible,” Zelensky said.

According to him, Vladimir Putin believes that control of the Ukrainian government should be transferred after the elections in the Donbass.

“I raise the issue that the transfer of the border should happen before the elections. We still have different views. But we must find a way out of these issues.”

Companion "Ukrainian truth“from the Ukrainian delegation told the publication the following: “Regarding the border, they were hostile and did not agree.” According to the interlocutor, Putin insisted that elections must first be held in uncontrolled territories, and only then Ukraine will have the opportunity to control the border. Vladimir Zelensky did not agree with this proposal.

Vladimir Putin, in turn, commenting on the results of the negotiations, said that he was pleased with them, because progress had been made on many issues: “The process is moving in the right direction.”

Putin said, in particular, that “there is a warming” in the issue of resolving the conflict in Donbass, and stated the need for direct negotiations between Kiev and representatives of the so-called “LPR” and “DPR.”

“It is very important that the parties to the conflict engage in direct dialogue. Not a single conflict in the world has been resolved without direct dialogue,” Putin said.

Photo by: kremlin.ru

What is the essence of the Steinmeier formula

In September of the 2016 of the year, foreign ministers of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and France, Jean-Marc Herault visited Kiev Air force.

Before these negotiations, Europe supported the position of Ukraine and President Poroshenko that the implementation of the political block of agreements, that is, the holding of local elections in uncontrolled territories, as well as the consolidation of the special status of Donbass, is possible only after the implementation of the points of the Minsk agreements on the issue of security. The main ones: the withdrawal of troops from the self-proclaimed “republics”, the establishment of OSCE control over the Ukrainian-Russian border, the release of all hostages.

In Kyiv, Steinmeier, with the support of his French colleague, proposed a compromise plan, in their opinion. The Minsk agreements in the security sector should be implemented simultaneously with the political one, explaining this by the need to move the Minsk process from a dead point.

It is important that these proposals were not fixed on paper, but were only proposed for discussion by the parties to the conflict.

In the Minsk documents, holding local elections on the territory of the ORDO is the penultimate, 12th point of the plan to resolve the crisis after a number of other steps, including “an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire”, the withdrawal of troops from the demarcation line, the withdrawal of foreign military formations, the establishment of OSCE control over the border.

The proposed “formula” provides for a fundamentally different mechanism. First - local elections in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, temporary, and after confirmation of the democratic nature of the elections by the OSCE - permanent entry into force of the law on the peculiarities of local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

And simultaneously with the implementation of this law, the withdrawal of troops and the establishment of Ukrainian control over the eastern border.

According to RIA News, the first meeting of the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine took place on June 6, 2014; later this format became known as the “Normandy format”. The most important meeting of the Quartet is the summit in Minsk in February 2015, where the Minsk agreements were consolidated.

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