Officials from Russia and Ukraine met in Paris on Wednesday and held what Moscow described as “tough” talks. Despite whatever difficulties there were, the two sides agreed that the ceasefire in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region must be upheld.
German and French officials were also present for the meeting, which lasted eight hours. The four countries started holding talks together after the Donbas war started in 2014 in a forum known as the Normandy format.
Russia and Ukraine signed the Minsk agreements during Normandy format talks in 2014 and 2015 that established a ceasefire in the Donbas. While there have been occasional flare-ups, the war has essentially been at a stalemate since 2015.
Russian envoy Dmitry Kozak said that “despite all the differences in interpretations (of the Minsk agreements), we agreed that the ceasefire must be maintained by all the parties in line with the accords.” He also said the next Normandy format meeting will take place in two weeks in Berlin.
The talks were held at the Elysee, the residence of French President Emmanuel Macron. In a statement, the Elysee said that the envoys “support unconditional respect for the ceasefire and full adherence to the ceasefire strengthening measures of July 22, 2020, regardless of differences on other issues relating to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.”
Under the Minsk agreements, Ukraine agreed to give a level of autonomy to the breakaway Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, which hasn’t happened yet. In December, The Associated Press reported that the Biden administration was considering pressuring Ukraine to grant the separatists autonomy, a move that could significantly de-escalate tensions in the region.
What did anyone expect – that Russia and Ukraine would say, “hell, no, let’s stop the ceasefire and start fighting!”? I can’t wait for Ray McGovern to seize on this pointless statement.
“In December, The Associated Press reported that the Biden administration was considering pressuring Ukraine to grant the separatists autonomy”
The operative word is “considering”. Some people have referred to that as Biden actually doing it. There is no evidence that I’m aware of that he actually did in any phone call with Zelensky or anyone else.
Why don’t you just can your obsesion with hectoring Ray and his opinion to wait and see if his predictions are correct or not. Then if he is wrong, and you are correct, you can crow about it. And we can all move on to some other crisis.
He’s already wrong. There has been zero movement forward, as I and virtually everyone else except him predicted.
Don’t tell me that Biden has made one good possible decision!!!! CeasefireTHEN the rest of the Minsk plan , BUT Kiev has to do it!Talk to Donbass and find a way.
Deputy “F the EU” Nuland holds the leash. Zelensky is just the dog. What value an agreement with the dog?
But the russians are coming! The russians are coming! TV says they are MASSING!
Pepe Escobar has tweeted this morning that Academi has moved into the LPDR.
Oh h*ll no! Eric Stinking Prince?
That was expected. The CIA and the neocons need someone they can control, bypassing the Pentagon and Biden who they probably don’t trust to “do the right thing”, i.e., attack Donbass. The Russians warned about “US mercenaries” weeks ago. You need these guys and Ukrainian neo-Nazi hardliners if you want to commit a provocation that results in a lot of civilian casualties.