KIEV, March 31. /TASS/. The spread of novel coronavirus in European countries has had a negative effect on the implementation of the initiative on setting up a parliamentary dimension of the Normandy format but participants in this process continue working on settling the confict in Donbass, head of the political council of the Opposition Platform — For Life party and Verkhovna Rada member Viktor Medvedchuk told Ukrainian television on Tuesday.

"[Dialogue] has been paused only in the sense that all countries are fighting against the pandemic. However, members of the European Parliament have asked the high commissioner to give an assessment to the inter-parliamentary dimension of the Normandy format that included parliamentarians from Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia," Medvedchuk said.

He added that participants in the process "continue to work on this issue, continue to fight for peace in Donbass." "Of course, those contacts that had taken place before became impossible now. Our last meeting on March 10 in Moscow with the State Duma leadership, with State Duma members, with Russian President Putin has once again showed that we are on the right track, the track that will help restore peace in Donbass," he concluded.