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Contact Group continues to be key format for settling Ukrainian crisis — Russian diplomat

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that the Normandy format is an important instrument for promoting the results reached by the Contact Group

BERLIN, November 26. /TASS/. The Normandy format is an important instrument for promoting the results reached by the Contact Group, a key mechanism for settling the Ukrainian conflict, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Tuesday.

"The Normandy format continues to be an important international instrument making it possible to rectify results that are reached by the Contact Group," Grushko said. "The Contact Group, which includes delegates from the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, is the key venue for the discussion of all aspects of settlement in Ukraine."

Commenting on the expectations from the upcoming Normandy Quartet summit, the Russian diplomat expressed the hope that "this meeting will make it possible to really fix the progress on the two main tracks of the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict."

"It is the improvement of the security situation on the ground, i.e. disengagement of forces in three locations, and progress on the political track where Ukraine’s acceptance of the Steinmeier formula as the basis for political settlement is a key element of the summit’s success," he stressed.

The so-called Steinmeier formula, or a conflict settlement plan for Donbass, was proposed by the then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in late 2015. It envisages the enforcement of the Ukrainian law on a special procedure of local self-government on certain territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions on a temporary basis on the day of local elections in Donbass, and on a permanent basis after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) publishes a report on their results.

A summit in the Normandy format (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) will be held in Paris on December 9. Leaders of the four nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, will discuss ways of settling the Ukrainian crisis.