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What the Paris Normandy summit set in motion
Summary
A look back at the Paris talks that brought Zelensky and Putin face to face and produced a pledge on a Donbass ceasefire.
What had the Paris talks changed by 11 December 2019? Two days earlier, on 9 December 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel met in the French capital for peace talks on Ukraine. It was the first time Putin and Zelensky had met, and the first four-way leaders' meeting of this kind since 2016.
The format was known as the Normandy Format. Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France made up the grouping, which first met informally in 2014 during the 70th anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy, France. It later played a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements between 2014 and 2015.
A ceasefire pledge
The Paris meeting followed a breakthrough in talks. Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a ceasefire in the Donbass by the end of 2019. That gave the two sides a short deadline, only weeks away on 11 December 2019.
Looking back
The Paris meeting stood out for who sat at the table: the Ukrainian and Russian presidents in person, alongside the French president and the German chancellor. Later, the grouping's meetings in 2022 failed to de-escalate rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the Normandy Format ceased to operate after that.
