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What followed the Paris Normandy summit of December 2019?
Summary
A look back at the days after the first Putin–Zelensky meeting and the ceasefire pledge made in Paris.
What did the Paris talks actually leave behind by 13 December 2019? The question was a live one four days after Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel met in the French capital on 9 December 2019 for peace talks on Ukraine.
The meeting was notable on two counts. It was the first time Putin and Zelensky had met, and the first four-way leaders' meeting of this kind since 2016.
A ceasefire pledge
Following what was reported as a breakthrough in the talks, Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a ceasefire in the Donbass by the end of 2019. That gave the two sides a window of only a few weeks from the Paris meeting, and by 13 December the commitment stood as the main concrete outcome of the summit.
The format behind the meeting
The gathering took place in the Normandy Format, a grouping of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France. The four countries first met informally in 2014 during the 70th anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy, France. The group later had a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements between 2014 and 2015.
The format continued to meet until 2022. Later meetings that year failed to deescalate rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. None of that was known on 13 December 2019, when attention rested on whether the pledge made in Paris would be put into practice before the year ended.
