After more than seven hours of negotiations, the leaders of Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange all prisoners before Dec. 31, disengage weapons in three locations on the front line and to implement the so-called Steinmeier Formula into Ukrainian legislation.
Such was the outcome of the Normandy Four meeting in Paris on Dec. 9, the first such meeting since October 2016. It was also the first meeting of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, with leaders of France and Germany joining them.
The sides agreed to meet again within four months.
The sides didn’t reach an agreement on other issues, including Ukraine’s demand that Russian military and its proxy militants leave the territories of eastern Ukraine that they have occupied since 2014, and that Ukraine retrieves full control of its eastern border before the elections can take place in the occupied territories.
The four leaders released a communique formalizing the agreements.
“We achieved a lot, but I wanted more,” said Zelensky. “There are many issues that we didn’t solve today, unfortunately. I’m sure we will solve them at the next meeting, together.”
The “all-for-all” prisoner exchange is set to take place before the end of December. There are at least 120 Ukrainian political prisoners sitting in jails in Russia and Russian-annexed Crimea. There are also at least 130 military servicepeople and civilians imprisoned in Russia-controlled parts of the Donbas. The agreed exchange will not include the Ukrainians held in the Donbas.
This prisoner swap follows another exchange in September, where Ukraine and Russia exchanged 35 prisoners each.
The sides also agreed to withdraw troops in three disengagement points by March 2020, in addition to three locations where withdrawal already took place in 2019.
The four agreed to allow the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor the war zone in the Donbas for 24 hours a day instead of the 12 hours that its current mandate allows.
On Oct. 1, Ukraine agreed to the Steinmeier Formula, a peace plan within the larger framework of Minsk Agreements. According to the plan, the occupied territories are to be granted self-governance after local elections take place in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation.
Ukraine and Russia, however, disagree on how the plan must be implemented. Zelensky, representing Ukraine, insists that the elections must take place after Russian forces leave the area. Putin insists that Ukraine must regain control of the territories only after the elections.
“A full ceasefire must take place by the end of the year,” said Zelensky. “Demining must begin.”
Meanwhile, in Kyiv, thousands of Ukrainians have been regularly protesting against what they see as Zelensky’s readiness to make concessions to Russia.
On Dec. 8, over 8,000 people protested in Kyiv to demand adherence to what they call “red lines”
The so-called “red lines” included five demands: no federalization of Ukraine, no compromises on Crimea, no concessions on Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic course, no elections in the occupied territories of Donbas without the withdrawal of Russian troops and no termination of international lawsuits against Russia. At the press conference after the Normandy Four meeting, Zelensky reiterated that he stands firm on these principles.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Myroniuk contributed to this story.
