MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/. The meeting of the political advisors to the Normandy Four nations leaders, planned for August 28, has been cancelled, a source close to the talks told TASS.
The source clarified that the meeting was called off because of "the absence of draft outcome documents; or disagreements [as to those documents] by either Germany, France or Ukraine."
The meeting’s date of August 28 was named by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. According to Zelensky, the advisors’ meeting was supposed to be followed by a meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of the Normandy Four, and then - by a meeting of the heads of state.
The last time the political advisors gathered was on July 3, 2020 in Berlin. Russia’s Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Dmitry Kozak noted that no breakthrough was achieved at the meeting. In particular, according to Kozak, the meeting "failed to obtain a clear and unambiguous answer from Ukraine as to the preparation of a paper on amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution regarding decentralization," as provided by the Minsk Agreements.
Kozak also mentioned that "although attempts to define specific dates for a new top-level Normandy Four summit were made," it is still "way too early" to speak about a specific date for such a meeting, because large work on the implementation of the decisions of the previous summit in Paris still lies ahead.