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What the Paris Normandy summit produced for Ukraine
Summary
A look back at the Paris talks that brought Zelensky and Putin face to face for the first time, and at the ceasefire pledge that followed.
What did the Paris summit deliver for Ukraine? On 10 December 2019, a day after the meeting, that was the question being asked about talks that put the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany in one room.
On 9 December 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel met in Paris for peace talks on the war in Donbass. It was the first time Putin and Zelensky had met. It was also the first four-way leaders' meeting of this kind since 2016.
A ceasefire pledge
As reported at the time, the talks produced a breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a ceasefire in the Donbass by the end of 2019. That gave the two sides a deadline of only a few weeks.
The format behind the meeting
The gathering took place in the Normandy Format, a grouping of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France. The four first met informally in 2014, during the 70th anniversary commemorations of D-Day in Normandy, France. The group later played a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements, concluded between 2014 and 2015.
The Paris meeting brought that format back to the level of leaders after a gap of several years. Later, in 2022, further meetings in the format failed to deescalate rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On 10 December 2019, the measurable results were the first Putin–Zelensky encounter and the commitment to a ceasefire by the end of the year.
