Normandy format summit to take place by year-end, Yermak believes

Negotiations with Russia remain difficult, but there is hope for holding the Normandy format summit in Berlin this year.

Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak made a corresponding statement in a conversation with the media outlets of German Funke Mediengruppe following a visit to Berlin on May 2.

"I am confident that a summit of the heads of state and government of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia will take place in Berlin this year," Yermak said in an article entitled "Between Putin and Virus" published in the Oldenburger OnlineZeitung on June 4.

According to him, although the dialogue with Moscow is difficult "at some points", it is still held.

Yermak noted that three prisoner swaps in coordination with his Russian negotiating partner Dmitry Kozak had been conducted.

As a next step, Kyiv wants to make a list of representatives of militant-controlled territories that should take part in negotiations within the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE). They should be members of civil society and not be appointed by “people's republics”, Yermak said, explaining that they could be “representatives of non-governmental organizations, religious figures, journalists - citizens of Ukraine who do not have a Russian passport and did not take part in hostilities against Kyiv.”

"The six-year monopoly of the so-called people's republics on the appointment of representatives of Donbas must end," the official stressed.

He also assessed the epidemiological situation in eastern Ukraine as “quite dramatic.”

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