“This is a slap in the face”: Kuleba accused Lavrov of disrupting the agreements

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is thwarting agreements on Donbass by refusing to meet in the “Normandy format” at the ministerial level, although Russian President Vladimir Putin recently agreed to ministerial negotiations.

This was stated at a briefing by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.

According to him, yesterday Lavrov distinguished himself again, calling Ukraine’s initiative to resolve the conflict in Donbas “a stream of consciousness.”

“Let me remind you that in his last conversation with the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany, Putin promised them a meeting of ministers of the“ Normandy format. ”The French and German ministers are ready, I, too, and we are in a constructive mood. a conversation between ministers, and at the competition with its speaker (MFA Maria Zakharova – Ed.) in verbal balancing act. Lavrov’s words are a slap in the face of France and Germany, “Kuleba said.

He noted that the leaders of the states had clearly agreed on the “Normandy meeting” at the ministerial level, but Kiev still has not received signals from the Russian Federation about its readiness to hold it.

“Lavrov’s latest statement undermines the peace process and runs counter to the agreements of the leaders of the Normandy format countries. I call on my Russian counterpart to agree to a meeting and sit down at the negotiating table,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister stressed.

As we reported, on October 11, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy phoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he discussed Donbass and future negotiations.

In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke with Merkel and Macron about the “Normandy meeting.” Later, the Kremlin confirmed the preparations for the meeting.

“Normandy format”

• The “Normandy format” is a type of meetings in a quadripartite format between the top officials of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia, where issues of Russian armed aggression against Ukraine are discussed.
• The name of the format comes from the meeting place of the heads of these four states, which first took place on June 6, 2014 in the town of Benouville, Normandy (France), as part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the opening of a second front in World War II. The next meeting in the same format was held on October 16-17 in Milan (Italy), the third – on February 11-12, 2015 in Minsk (Belarus). In December 2019, the Paris summit was held with the participation of the leaders of the Normandy, at which President Vladimir Zelensky was for the first time.
• Six months after Paris, the Normandy Summit was supposed to be held in Berlin, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then due to a lack of consent from Russia. The Kremlin is constantly demanding that Kiev fulfill the previous agreements, but at the same time the invaders themselves do not fulfill them.