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What the Paris summit promised on Donbass
Summary
A look back at the Normandy Format talks in Paris and the ceasefire pledge that came out of them.
What did the Paris talks actually deliver? On 10 December 2019, the day after the summit, the main outcome was a pledge: Russia and Ukraine had agreed on 9 December 2019 to implement a ceasefire in the Donbass by the end of 2019.
The meeting itself carried weight. Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel met in Paris for Ukraine peace talks. It was the first time Putin and Zelensky had met, and the first four-way leaders' meeting of this kind since 2016.
A format with a track record
The grouping, known as the Normandy Format, brought together Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France. It first met informally in 2014, during the 70th anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy, and later played a substantial role in mediating the Minsk agreements between 2014 and 2015.
What the pledge implied
The ceasefire commitment was reported as following a breakthrough in the talks. Its deadline was short: the end of 2019, only weeks after the summit. That gave the agreement a clear, testable benchmark for both sides.
The Paris meeting restored a leaders' channel that had been dormant since 2016. Later, the format's meetings continued until 2022; further meetings that year failed to ease rising tensions before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On 10 December 2019, however, the focus was on whether the ceasefire pledge would be turned into practice.
