Talks under the “Normandy Format”, created in 2014 by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, are continuing in Paris. The goal of the talks is to bring about an end the armed conflict in Ukraine. Russia has occupied Crimea and eastern Ukraine since 2014. At the talks, the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zełenski, has taken place.
Vladimir Putin and the host of the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron, were joined by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The main topic of the summit is said to be the issue of settling the conflict in Donbass in eastern Ukraine, which has been continuing since 2014. The issue of Russian-Ukrainian energy cooperation was also to be tackled during the meeting. Talks are currently underway on a new contract regarding the transit of Russian gas through western Ukraine. The current agreement expires at the end of December.