What did Zakharchenko's funeral mean for peace talks?

What did the funeral of Alexander Zakharchenko signal for diplomacy over the war in Donbass? On 3 September 2018, the question was already being asked, a day after tens of thousands of people attended the ceremony, as reported on 2 September 2018.

The same reporting recorded that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had described the murder as a provocation. He also said it would derail the Normandy format peace process, which was already stalled.

What the Normandy format was

The Normandy format, also known as the Normandy contact group or Normandy Four, brought together Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France. The four countries first met informally in 2014, during the 70th anniversary of the D-Day celebrations in Normandy, France. The group played a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements between 2014 and 2015.

By September 2018, then, Lavrov's remark concerned a channel that had already lost momentum. His claim was about the killing's effect on that process, and it came alongside a large public funeral.

A format that later ended

The group continued to meet until 2022. Later meetings that year failed to ease rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.