KIEV, February 9. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky expressed hope that the next summit of the Normandy Quartet (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) will take place in Berlin in two months, as was planned during the latest talks in Paris.
"Two months after the Normandy [meeting] in Paris and, I hope, two months before another meeting in Berlin, I asked [the Pope] to assist in releasing Ukrainians, captured in Donbass, in Crimea and Russia," Zelensky said after meeting Pope Francis in Vatican on Saturday, in a brief statement released via the Telegram messenger.
The Ukrainian leader described the meeting with the Pontiff as "the moment of truth" and vowed to do his best to make the conflict in eastern Ukraine only a "terrible flashback" from the past.
A Normandy Four summit was held in Paris on December 9, 2019, for the first time after a three-year break. Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Emmanuel Macron of Germany, Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gathered in the Elysee Palace to discuss ways of settling the conflict in Donbass.
The seven-hour talks yielded a final document committing to paper a number of concrete accords. Among the summit’s most expected results was an agreement to exchange prisoners-of-war in Donbass under the formula of "all identified for all identified" by the yearend and to disengage forces at three more sections of the contact line by March 2020.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko said on February 4 that representatives of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine were discussing the possibility to hold a Normandy format meeting in Munich at the level of foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference due on February 14-16. However, he disavowed his statement after the French Foreign Ministry officially stated on Wednesday that it could not confirm the information.