President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington said that he intends to start negotiations with US President Joe Biden about Crimea, Donbass and the Normandy format.
Zelensky is on a working visit to the United States, where he is scheduled to meet with Biden on Wednesday. It is planned that the key topic of the Ukrainian-American talks in Washington will be to involve the United States in a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbass. Another topic of conversation between the two presidents will be the discussion of Nord Stream-2 and guarantees of energy security for Ukraine.
“There will be several sectors of our conversation: security, war, economy. There are many things that I want to get not an answer, but a vision. Moreover, it seems to me that the question is not about what Ukraine is asking and what America is answering. this is mutual. Each side has questions and answers”, Zelensky said during a conversation with reporters in Washington. The broadcast was hosted by the Dom TV channel on YouTube.
To the clarifying question of whether the “Normandy format”, Crimea and Donbass topics will be discussed at the talks with Biden, Zelensky noted that “I think we will start with this.”
Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum was held there in March 2014 following a coup in Ukraine. Ukraine still considers Crimea to be its temporarily occupied territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the inhabitants of Crimea democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Crimea issue is “finally closed.”
In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, which declared independence after the coup d’etat in Kiev in February 2014. According to the latest UN data, about 13 thousand people became victims of the conflict.
The so-called “Normandy format” of negotiations on Ukraine has existed since June 2014. Then, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the landing of allied troops in Normandy, the leaders of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France for the first time discussed the settlement of the conflict in Donbass. The previous summit was held in Paris on December 9, 2019. Recently, the parties at different levels have been discussing the prospects for interaction in this format.