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Normandy Four talks impossible without signed ‘Steinmeier formula’— Ukraine’s top diplomat

Another condition for the talks is the disengagement of forces and equipment in three pre-agreed areas in Donbass

KIEV, September 20. /TASS/. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristayko confirmed that the Normandy Four summit will not take place if the so-called Steinmeier formula is not signed. Another condition for the talks is the disengagement of forces and equipment in three pre-agreed areas in Donbass.

"Yes, this is one of the two conditions for the leaders’ meeting that we agreed on," Pristayko said in response to a question by Evropeyskaya Pravda newspaper on whether Kiev agrees that the Steinmeier formula has to be signed before the meeting between leaders of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France.

"The second condition: we expect that disengagement of forces will be carried out in three controlled areas," he continued in an interview published on Friday. "Then the Russians added a third condition that has to do with developing clear formulas for the leaders’ statements."

After Wednesday’s meeting of the Contact Group for the settlement in Eastern Ukraine, Russian envoy Boris Gryzlov informed that Kiev's representatives refused to sign the "Steinmeier formula" thus undermining the Normandy Four summit and the disengagement of forces in the settlements of Petrovskoye and Zolotoye.