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Lavrov does not expect results Normandy Four talks

According to the minister, this videoconference will primarily discuss the implementation of the agreements reached by the leaders in December last year in Paris

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The upcoming talks of the Normandy Four foreign ministers (Russia, Germany, Ukraine, France) in the video format are unlikely to bring results, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Bolshaya Igra ("Big Game") program on Russia’s Channel One.

"I foresee a probably important conversation at the ministerial level, because we talked about all this many times in Germany and France," he said. "They asked to take on the responsibility to nevertheless encourage the Ukrainian authorities to work honestly and constructively. But frankly, I don’t expect any result from this video conference, except that the Ukrainian colleagues will probably say again: ‘Let's get together soon in Berlin’," the minister added.

According to the minister, this videoconference will primarily discuss the implementation of the agreements reached by the leaders in December last year in Paris. "One of these agreements was fulfilled, and on a rather modest scale - an exchange of prisoners. Less than three dozen people were exchanged between Kiev on the one hand, Donetsk and Lugansk on the other. Everything else that was discussed in Paris, to our great regret, was not fulfilled, and not through fault or due to lack of goodwill on the part of Donetsk and Lugansk," Lavrov said.

Lavrov recalled that the main issues are safety and lives of people on both sides of the conflict, cessation of shelling and violence, which President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky also supports. "Now our colleagues from Germany, France, the United States, and the OSCE periodically call on us to influence the militias and achieve reduction or cessation of any violations of the ceasefire. There is a simple way to do this - to ensure separation of forces and funds," he continued.