+8 Kyiv
Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, held negotiations in Minsk with Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Head of Administration of the President of RF. Office of the President announced it on March 1 on its Facebook account.
Ukranian and Russian delegations also attended the meeting, reads the message.
“During the meeting counterparties discussed mutual release of apprehended persons in “all for all” format that was agreed upon by the Normandy Four leaders in Paris in December 2019. Yermak declared his intention to organize next round of exchange in March,-“reported the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Participants underlined necessity for ongoing negotiations until full implication of the Normandy Fours’ agreements, Ukrainian officials emphasized.
On January 24, Vladimir Putin, the President of RF, appointed Dmitry Kozak, former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, as Deputy Head of Administration of the President of RF. According to Russian media, he was appointed to supervise Ukrainian affairs.
On February 11, Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, fired Andrii Bohdan and appointed Yermak as new Head of the Office of the President. The Office of the President assured that the changes would not affect political course of Ukraine. On February 12, the new chief of presidential office pointed out the ending of the war in Donbas as his priority.
On February 10, Yermak expressed an opinion that Kozak would be more inclined to have a dialog with Kyiv that Putin’s ex-aide Vladislav Surkov was.
Last negotiations of leaders of the Normandy Four took place in Paris on December 9, 2019. The final communiqué stipulated that the sides of the conflict agreed to halt fire, to open new checkpoints, to exchange apprehended persons by “all for all” formula, to separate armed forces in three new areas in Donbas, to prolong for a year the Law on local governing in certain Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts regions, and to widen the mandate for OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.
The date of the next Normandy Fours summit is currently unknown. The participants announced the next meeting in four month after the previous one.
