The Norman format was unlocked. Results of the meeting in Paris
On January 26, in Paris, after the last pauses and against the background of the statement about the possible invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine, a meeting of advisers to the leaders of the “Norman Four” took place. Ukraine was represented by the head of the office of President Andriy Yermak.
The meeting lasted more than seven hours.
How to answer Andriy Yermak after the talks, the main achievements are the agreed communiqué, as well as the agreement to meet again in two weeks in Berlin.
The main provision of the communiqué is the commitment of the parties to the regime of changing the fire in Donbass, which should operate without any preconditions, Ermak added.
Although the details of how it should work, he did not name. He believes that in general the fire regime is still working, although with some violations.
This was confirmed by Russian negotiator Dmitry Kozak.
“It was agreed that despite the differences in the Minsk agreements, a truce should be unconditional,” Kozak said.
But he blamed Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics for the armistice. He once again voiced Moscow’s position – Russia is not a party to the conflict in Donbass.
“There was a meaningful and difficult conversation, an audit of the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the Norman agreements of 2019,” Yermak said.
“The parties acknowledged that there are many differences between Ukraine and Russia on the implementation of the Minsk agreements and their interpretation, but there is a desire to work on it,” he said.
On the “inventory of differences in readings” of the Minsk agreements and Dmitry Kozak.
According to Yermak, support for the fire regime is important against the background of the tense situation on the borders of Ukraine and Russia.
“Today’s communiqué is the first to be agreed since December 2019,” Ermak added.
For the parties expressed a desire to continue to work on all the inaccuracies, in his own words.
Dmytro Kozak also expressed hope that in two weeks in Berlin the parties will be able to agree on differences.
And this is the quality of modality and the sequence of implementation of the Minsk agreements.
The issue of meeting the leaders of the “Norman format”, as Kozak even said, was not discussed today. Therefore, there can be no talk of such a meeting yet.
“The same should happen only when we agree on all legal aspects of the special status of Donbass in post-conflict Ukraine, then the meeting will be devoted to the selection of local governments in Donbass,” he added.
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Representatives of France and Germany recently spoke with their Russian counterpart Dmitry Kozak, as well as separately with Andrei Ermak.
A BBC source said that in early January, Ermak also spoke by phone with Dmitry Kozak about the peace process in Donbas, but the full-scale meeting was hampered by the Russian side.
It was expected that this meeting will help pave the way for the future leader of the “Norman” four, as the last time they met in December 2019. At least the hope for this was voiced by Volodymyr Zelensky.
Andriy Yermak said before the meeting that the fact of negotiations was already good, because it unblocked the “Norman format”.
In total, a whole delegation from Ukraine arrived in France on January 26. Some officials, a representative of the head of the OP Rostislav Shurma and the Minister of Infrastructure Alexander Kubrakov, who represents a series of meetings to prepare for the visit of the President of France to Ukraine.
Together with Yermak, the first representative of the head of Ukrainian delegations in the tripartite contact group, MP Andriy Kostin, took part in a meeting of advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four.
Expecting “betrayal”?
On the eve of the meeting in the initial press appeared with reference to the reference that the sources of inquiries call the Ukrainian side to direct talks with the leaders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass.
This information, although unverified, caused a wave of outrage in Ukraine. Kyiv’s long-standing position is not to negotiate directly with the militants, as this could legitimize Ukraine.
On the other hand, Russia, which does not recognize itself as a party to the conflict in Donbas, and the militants themselves are constantly insisting on direct talks between Kyiv and Donetsk and Luhansk.
Before leaving for Paris, Andriy Yermak was forced to comment and read information from the Western media.
In a comment to BC-Ukraine, he said that “direct talks with the separatists have not been and will not be.”
He insisted that there was no specific agenda for the meeting of normal workers.
And the Ukrainian side intended to discuss the resumption of the fire regime, humanitarian issues, the opening of checkpoints, as well as future work in the “Norman format”.
He called media information fabrications, manipulations and fakes.
The French media also suggested that Paris could offer its vision of unblocking the peace process in Donbass.
According to BBC sources in the president’s office, holding meetings to the last delayed the Russian side.
Recently, the media reported that the precondition for the meeting was the withdrawal from the Council of the government’s draft law on the transitional period of reintegration of Donbass.
Project criticized Russia, because it provided a fairly strict regime of reintegration of Ukraine without significant concessions to the militants.
He also criticized the Venice Commission and human rights activists.
The need to take into account the comments of Europeans, the authorities justified the withdrawal of the project. But Andriy Yermak insisted that this was not a concession to Russia to hold meetings in Paris.
The first “Normandy” and attempts to “talk to Donbass”
The first and last leaders of the “Quartet of Normandy” under President Zelensky took place on December 9, 2019.
However, no significant progress has been made in resolving the conflict in Donbas, and the comprehensive ceasefire announced in the summer of 2020 is partially working and the shelling continues.
Kyiv and Moscow have opposing views on defining controversial issues and ways to implement the Minsk agreements and hold elections on the territory of ORDLO.
Russia refuses to recognize itself as a party to the conflict and forces Kyiv in various ways to direct talks between Kyiv and the militants.
On March 11, 2020, as a contact group in Minsk, with the participation of Ermak and Kozak, they agreed to establish a so-called advisory council for talks with representatives of Donbass.
The media of Russia and the unrecognized “republics” began that the council would become a platform for direct talks between Ukraine and the “DPR-LPR”, which may indicate their recognition of Kyiv.
This caused a wave of outrage in Ukraine. Observers feared that this could help Russia establish itself not as a participant in the conflict, but as a mediator.
On March 13, 2020, the Mirror of the Week published the probable text of the agreement on the establishment of the council, which included ten representatives of Ukraine, ten representatives of certain regions of Donbass, and one each from Russia, France, Germany and the OSCE.
Ukrainian analysts have begun to accuse the move of starting direct talks with the separatists, and Russia is allegedly an outsider.
Instead, Andriy Yermak stressed that there were no steps that created a legal framework for the representatives of the “republics” and their recognition.
“We are not talking about any direct negotiations. We are talking about creating platforms for any citizen of Ukraine, and citizens living in uncontrolled territories are talking about issues agreed by the mine in their agreements,” – who live in controlled territories. “- living in controlled areas.
He said that the creation of this council had not yet been approved on March 11, and that this should have been agreed upon.
After a wave of outrage in Ukraine, the issue of creating this council disappeared from the agenda and did not return to it.