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Kiev allows possibility of changing "Normandy Format"

According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin, a format is less important than its content, it is much more important "what we can do and who helps us," he explained

© EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH

KIEV, August 17 /TASS/. Ukraine allows possibility of replacing the "Normandy Four" format (Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine) of talks on the Ukraine settlement with another format, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said on Wednesday.

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Kiev has no plans of breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia — foreign minister

"We have the ‘Normandy format’ in which Germany and France represent the European Union. But the United States is also exerting efforts. We can change our format and start moving towards a Budapest or a Geneva format," Klimkin told Ukraine’s TV 5 Channel.

According to Klimkin, a format is less important than its content. It is much more important "what we can do and who helps us," he explained.

Earlier Kiev suggested holding a "Normandy Four" meeting on the sidelines of a G-20 summit in China on September 4-5 this year. Moscow has accepted this proposal.

The "Normandy format" (Normandy Four) negotiations for the settlement of the Donbass crisis have been under way 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 on the beaches of Normandy in 1944) discussed the settlement of the conflict in southeast Ukraine for the first time. Several "Normandy Four" meetings have taken place at the summit and ministerial levels since then.

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