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France, Germany demonstrate bias in Normandy format — Russian diplomat

"Unfortunately we see our Western partners and in particular France and Germany to follow more and more this devastating path which can lead us to some very dangerous developments," the diplomat added

UNITED NATIONS, December 1. /TASS/. France and Germany demonstrate a biased stance in the Normandy format, Russian First Deputy Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky told reporters on Tuesday.

"We were very sad about the fact that our French and German colleagues with this event and in the eve of this Normandy meeting absolutely showed themselves as a biased party in these deliberations because for those who read the Minsk agreements, for those who are familiar with the situation its absolutely clear that the core of the Minsk agreement is the direct dialogue between Ukraine and the authorities of Donetsk and Lugansk," he said.

"Unfortunately we see our Western partners and in particular France and Germany to follow more and more this devastating path which can lead us to some very dangerous developments," the diplomat added.

A peace settlement of the conflict in Donbass rests on the Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, that was signed by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, after marathon 16-hour talks between the leaders of the Normandy Four nations, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine. Overall, five Normandy Quartet summits have taken place. The latest of them was held in Paris on December 9, 2019, and its decisions are not being implemented by Ukraine.

On November 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published diplomatic correspondence between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his French and German counterparts in order to prevent distortions of Moscow’s position regarding the idea of a meeting of Normandy Quartet foreign ministers. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, explained later that this correspondence showed Moscow’s proposals regarding the Normandy Quartet in order to fill a future meeting with specific content, and also demonstrated that the Western partners’ claims about Russia’s allegedly unconstructive stance were groundless.

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