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Paris summit: what the Normandy talks produced
Summary
A look back at the Paris meeting of four leaders, and the ceasefire pledge it yielded for the Donbass.
What did the leaders gather in Paris actually achieve? On 9 December 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel met for talks on ending the war in Donbass.
The meeting carried two firsts. It was the first time Putin and Zelensky had met, and the first four-way leaders' meeting of its kind since 2016.
A pledge on the ceasefire
The talks produced a result described at the time as a breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a ceasefire in the Donbass by the end of 2019.
The format behind the table
The four countries around the table made up the Normandy Format, also known as the Normandy contact group or Normandy Four. Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France first met informally in 2014, during the 70th anniversary of the D-Day commemorations in Normandy, France. The group later played a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements between 2014 and 2015.
The Paris meeting was therefore a return to a familiar framework, now with a new Ukrainian leader facing the Russian president for the first time.
What came later
The group continued to meet until 2022. Further meetings in 2022 failed to de-escalate rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
