Normandy-format summit to be held before end of 2019 - Ukrainian FM
KYIV. Nov 14 (Interfax) - There has still been no date set for a Normandy-format summit to address settlement of the conflict in Donbas, but it should be determined soon, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said.
"I hope we will know the date in the near future. Some possible dates are being discussed already," Prystaiko said at a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg in Kyiv on Thursday.
Prystaiko said he was confident that the summit would certainly be held before the end of 2019.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 13 that there were some positive trends in preparations for a Normandy-format summit following the disengagement in Donbas and a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said on November 11 that a Normandy-format summit could be held before the end of the year.
The countries involved in the Normandy-format talks are France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.
Disengagement between the parties to the conflict in Donbas at three pilot sites along the line of contact is among the preconditions of a Normandy-format summit.
The parties to the conflict completed the withdrawal of their forces from the line of contact at site No. 3 (Bohdanivka-Petrivske) in the Donetsk region on November 12. Disengagement was earlier completed at sites No. 1 near Stanytsia Luhanska and No. 2 near Zolote, the Luhansk region. Now that the disengagement process there has been completed, the parties are supposed to demine the relevant areas and dismantle fortifications. The entire process is expected to last until after December 6, when the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission is supposed to verify its completion.