Holding the summit in the “Normandy” format in the foreseeable future looks problematic, it will have no added value, a source close to the talks told reporters.
According to the source, during the next videoconference of political advisers and representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the countries of the “Normandy” format, the main issue for discussion was the possibility of holding a summit of heads of state of the “Normandy” four. He noted that Ukraine insists on convening a new summit since last summer, to which Germany and France joined in the spring.
Commenting on the results of the next videoconference of political advisers and representatives of the Normandy format Foreign Ministry, which took place on September 17, 2021, he noted that “the two-hour talks once again demonstrated that the” constructive uncertainty “officially promoted by Berlin and Paris still dominates in the Normandy format.
As the interlocutor added, taking into account Ukraine’s refusal to implement the decisions of the previous summit in Paris, in order to determine the “meaning and content” of new negotiations at the highest level, the Russian side invited the initiators to submit a draft final document.
“Obviously, such a summit will not have any added value to the” negligible “, as (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel said the day before, the results of seven years of work in the Normandy format and in the foreseeable future are very problematic,” the source said.
According to the source, at first all the participants in the negotiations, including representatives of Ukraine, agreed that the Minsk agreements are the only basis for resolving the conflict.
“But Germany, France and Ukraine immediately refused to fix in the draft final document the geographical location of the conflict, its nature and the parties to the conflict, which are obliged by the Minsk agreements to resolve it,” he said.
“The French and Germans have gone so far as to have deleted from the draft results the indication they themselves proposed that the conflict is taking place” in Ukraine”, which had not been disputed by anyone before. Moreover, they made this amendment their principled position,” the source added.
According to him, all attempts to find out how, in accordance with the position stated, including publicly by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Russia is a party to the conflict, the participants in the negotiation process see a specific settlement process based on the Minsk Agreements, in which Russia’s obligations not a word, we ran into stubborn silence.
Ultimately, the political advisers of Germany and France suggested that the Russian side should inscribe itself in the draft final document as an aggressor and write itself commitments to resolve the conflict, the source said.
“In the end, Dmitry Kozak turned to the Ukrainian representative Andriy Yermak with a proposal to try to formulate Russia’s obligations to resolve the conflict, taking into account the repeated public statements of Ukrainian officials on this issue. should be done by representatives of Germany and France”, – said the source.
“As a result, the European colleagues made proposals to draw up a simple list of questions for the leaders without any proposed solutions to which the heads of state and government must answer,” said a source close to the talks.
According to the source, in fact, representatives of Berlin, Paris and Kiev were ready to sign their complete incompetence in order to hold the coveted summit as soon as possible.