Political advisors to the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France, meeting in the ‘Normandy’ format, held “difficult” discussions for more than 9.5 hours on Thursday 10 February in Berlin.
Despite the difficulties, the parties plan to meet again in March after the next meetings of the trilateral contact group - comprising Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE - in March, the German government announced on Friday 11 February.
“The discussions were difficult and made clear the different positions and options for a solution”, according to a German government statement. According to the Elysée, Russia has agreed to continue the talks in the ‘Normandy’ format, while considering that Ukraine should commit to negotiate with the pro-Russian separatists, which is a red line for Kiev.
The Kremlin said that the meeting had produced “no results”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov regretted the parties’ “inability” to read the Minsk agreements “in the same way”.
Ukrainian negotiator Andriy Yermak said that the parties had not been able to agree on a common document, but that they would continue to work, as “everyone has the will to achieve a result”.
The German government also explained that it had “become clear that all participants in the Normandy format stand by the Minsk agreements” and that they would continue to work for their full implementation. The Ukrainian side added that the parties had agreed on the need to unblock the work of the Trilateral Contact Group.
Late Friday afternoon, the leaders of the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, the EU and NATO were due to hold telephone talks on Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine as new exercises are conducted on the border.
Lavrov denounces EU response to his letter
Meanwhile, on Friday the Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the joint NATO-EU response to its written message calling on several states to clarify their definition of the principle of ‘equal and indivisible security’ (see EUROPE 12882/13) as “disrespectful” and “lacking in substance”.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, had asked for individual replies from the states to which he had sent his letter, and instead received replies from the NATO Secretary General and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to whom he had not addressed his request. “Such a move can only be seen as a sign of diplomatic rudeness and disrespect for our request”, the ministry said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)