Russia and Ukraine to exchange prisoners from east Ukraine conflict
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The leaders of Russia and Ukraine agreed on Tuesday to exchange all remaining prisoners from the conflict in east Ukraine by the end of the year, but left thorny questions about the region’s status unresolved in their first face-to-face meeting, Al Jazeera reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time on Monday at a summit in Paris aimed at advancing efforts to restore peace to eastern Ukraine.
The body language between Putin and Zelenskiy, a comedian-turned-politician elected earlier this year on a promise to resolve the conflict, was chilly. There was no public handshake, and they avoided eye contact.
The meeting lasted nine hours. The discussions in Paris in a summit brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Monday’s summit is the first time the four leaders have met under the so-called Normandy format since 2016.
The so-called “Normandy Format” meetings between the quartet began on the sidelines of 2014 ceremonies in Normandy marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, attended by all four heads of state and government, as part of peace efforts. But the last time the four national leaders gathered in this format was in 2016.
Following the meeting, Putin said he was satisfied with the discussion, adding in English, “Yes, I’m happy., DW reports.
But the talks did deliver specific commitments. A final communique set out the prisoner exchange and a renewed commitment to implement an existing ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region that has never fully taken hold as well as enhanced powers for international ceasefire monitors.
The sides also said they had agreed, over the next four months, to work toward local elections in Donbass, a major stumbling block up to now. There were no details though on how the votes would be conducted, and Macron acknowledged there were still disagreements on the subject.
“We have made progress on disengagement, prisoner exchanges, ceasefire and a political evolution,” Macron said at a news conference at which Zelenskiy and Putin sat separated by Merkel and Macron. “We have asked our ministers in the coming four months to work on this.”
In addition, Zelenskiy said he and Putin had worked out the outline of an agreement that would allow the transit of Russian natural gas to continue across Ukrainian soil. He gave no details. A member of the Russian delegation said officials had been instructed to hammer out details.
However, there was no definitive agreement on the political issues that stand in the way of resolving the conflict. These include the status of Donbass within Ukraine and who should de facto control the border between Donbass and Russia.
