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Kremlin believes expanding Normandy format not practical

The format itself so far has not been very effective, because Kiev is taking its time implementing the Minsk Agreements, the Kremlin spokesman said

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

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ST. PETERSBURG, June 7. /TASS/. The Kremlin so far believes that it is inexpedient to expand the Normandy format in view of its low efficiency, Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in response to the TASS request to comment on new Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s proposal to engage new countries in the format.

"As far as we are concerned, apart from Ukraine, other members of the Normandy format so far have not seen any expediency in expanding it," Peskov said. "Currently, we can say that the format itself so far has not been very effective, because Kiev is taking its time implementing the Minsk Agreements." "In the circumstances of such low efficiency, it’s barely possible to speak of its expansion," the Kremlin spokesman underlined. At the same time, he said that "everything depends on which position Kiev will now assume."

The Normandy Four format of negotiations on Ukraine exists since June 2014, when the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany who gathered in Normandy for the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of D-Day (the landing of allied troops in 1944) discussed the settlement of the conflict in southeastern Ukraine for the first time. Several Normandy Four top-level and ministerial meetings have been held since then.

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