Ukrainian Foreign Ministry: No consensus was reached on elections in the Donbas during Berlin meeting
At their meeting in Berlin, the Foreign Ministers of the Normandy Four were unable to reach a consensus with Russia regarding Kiev’s conditions for elections in Donbas. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine in reference to statements made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin.
“We have not come to an agreement. Russia has presented their own versions of the electoral legislation. I have told the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, that we are perfectly capable of writing Ukrainian legislation on our own and that we do not need any advice. We will continue to work on this issue as no progress has been made yet,” Klimkin explained.
The meeting lasted nearly three hours. The evening before the discussions were held, Lavrov held a bilateral meeting with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
According to the German Foreign Ministry, the Berlin meeting became the 12th meeting in a row to be held in the Normandy format. This format was formed after a meeting in Normandy in 2014 during the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the landing of allied troops. This format of negotiations involves Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine. The previous Normandy format meeting was held on the 3rd of March in Paris.