Leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany will hold three-way talks on Friday on Ukraine’s confrontation with Russia over the conflict in the eastern Donbass region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video released Thursday to the media.
Zelenskiy will travel to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and will speak with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a video conference, he said.
The meeting would lay the groundwork for a meeting in the format called “Normandy,” he said, though he gave no indication of whether such a meeting could take place or when.
The talks in the “Normandy” format involve the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia and have not taken place since December 2019.
“… This is an important preparatory meeting for the Normandy format,” Zelenskiy said, adding that “the situation in Donbass is now under control.”
Ukraine and Russia have been blamed for increased violence in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops have been fighting Russian-backed forces in a conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014 .
Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russia of “provocative” accumulation of troops near the eastern border of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.
Zelenskiy also thanked Turkey for its support and said Ukrainian tourists should visit Turkey after Russia restricted travel there.
The Turkish government said earlier on Thursday that it did not take sides in the confrontation and supported a diplomatic solution. Read more
Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.