Advisers to Normandy Four leaders prepare summit in Berlin

The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the situation in Donbas, first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has said that the advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four during a meeting in Paris would prepare a summit with the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

“I will recommend to the President of Ukraine, first of all, to achieve a meeting in Berlin. As far as I know, a meeting of advisers who will prepare a meeting in Berlin will already take place in Paris, and will be able to raise this issue [on holding elections in Donbas – ed.], because it cannot be resolved by the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group. The decision made by the Normandy Four leaders will be decisive,” Kravchuk said.

To Kravchuk, in order to resolve the issue of blocking the TCG negotiations by the ORDLO representatives, he did not find better way but to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada with a proposal to consider the issue of the compliance of the resolution on the appointment of the next local elections in 2020 with the law of Ukraine on a special local procedure of self-government in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“How to come to a common opinion, how to agree on all these decisions that cannot be resolved by Ukrainian legislation? We believe they contradict our national interests, and the other side believes that they do not contradict and, as they directly say, let’s implement the Minsk agreements … I did not find another way but to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada. This does not mean the things need to be done in the way I write or the way someone wants. It is necessary to keep moving forward, and they have blocked this movement. As soon as we do not decide on it, everything will stop: the exchange of prisoners – everything, and no one will influence them. There is only one way – to use force, but we can’t do this. We just do not have such a policy to do everything through the use of force. Our policy is to solve everything by reaching agreements. But they said: no agreements until you solve this issue. So let’s think about how to solve it,” Kravchuk said.

Read also: Verkhovna Rada to consider appeal about issue on compliance of decree on local elections in ORDLO.