What did the Paris summit change for Donbass?

What did four leaders achieve in Paris? Looking back at the events reported on 9 December 2019 and written up here for 10 December 2019, the meeting was notable first for who sat at the table: Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel gathered for talks on Ukraine.

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

The talks produced what was reported as a breakthrough. Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a ceasefire in the Donbass by the end of 2019, a deadline of only weeks.

The format behind the meeting

The gathering belonged to the Normandy Format, a grouping of 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 later played a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements between 2014 and 2015.

The Paris meeting therefore revived a framework with an established track record, now with a new Ukrainian leader taking part in person alongside the Russian president.

What came afterwards

The format continued to exist for some years. Later, in 2022, further meetings failed to reduce rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the grouping's work ended there. On 10 December 2019, though, the focus was on the commitment made in Paris to a ceasefire before year's end.