The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to implement “ceasefire support measures” for eastern Ukraine and “stabilize” the region by the end of the year.
The four leaders are holding a joint media conference after the so-called Normandy Format negotiations on transition to peace in eastern Ukraine.
Monday’s meeting was the first face-to-face between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the newly-elected Ukrainian’s first major test on the world stage. In a brief comment to reporters before sitting down to dinner with all three participants, Putin said he was “happy” with how the talks went.
The four Normandy leaders – with both Ukraine and France under different leadership – last met in 2016, with the aim of implementing the previously agreed-upon Minsk Protocols for winding down the conflict. However, little progress has been made since toward this end. Times have changed since 2016 though, and unlike his predecessor, the fiercely anti-Russian Petro Poroshenko, Zelensky has pushed for reconciliation.
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