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Berlin consultations to give impetus to talks on Ukraine settlement, says Russian official

The chief of the Russian president’s administration said that additional consultations on ways to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine had been held on Wednesday at the German Chancellery

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Wednesday’s consultations in Berlin will give an extra impetus to the talks both in the Normandy format and within the Trilateral Contact Group on settling the situation in eastern Ukraine, chief of the Russian president’s administration, Dmitry Kozak, said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

He said that additional consultations on ways to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine had been held on Wednesday at the German Chancellery. "These consultations will give an extra impetus to spur up negotiations both in the Normandy format and within the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk. Corresponding signals will be given," he said.

Dialogue in Berlin was held "in a constructive atmosphere," he said. "Agreements were reached on further mutual steps towards peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, on settling a lot of difficult problems that require coordination with representatives from Donbass, from Ukraine within the Normandy format," he added.

The Normandy Four summit in Paris in December 2019 yielded a number of decisions on settling the conflict in Donbass. But as the Russia, German, Ukrainian and French top diplomats noted at their videoconference on April 30, next to nothing had been implemented. The top diplomats called on the parties to the conflict to take more active steps and stressed the necessity to continue contacts in the Normandy format. They admitted however that another Normandy summit could not be organized at the moment since there were no conditions for that.

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