Kremlin Sees No Point in Resuming Work of Normandy Format

It was formulated and formed for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, Dmitry Peskov recalled

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov Sergei Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. The Normandy Format was created to implement the Minsk agreements, after the termination of the Minsk deal, the question arises as to why the Normandy Quartet is needed at all, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, commenting on statements made by Ukraine's Ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik about the expediency of reviving the so-called Normandy Format to establish peace in Ukraine.

"The Normandy Format itself was formulated and formed for the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Then it was working for this purpose. Since the Minsk agreements no longer exist and are no longer possible, the question is: what is it for?" Peskov said in reply to a question about whether this format could be revived.

Earlier, Ukraine's ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik called on the country's authorities to be mediators along with France in peace talks with Russia. In an interview published on Thursday with the joint corporate newsroom Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), he recalled that Berlin and Paris had already mediated the Ukrainian crisis in 2015 in Minsk. Given that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron continue to call Russian President Vladimir Putin, Melnik stressed that "there is already a certain basis of trust here, and it would be simply wrong not to use this opportunity and leave it [the mediation role] to others."

On May 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a telephone conversation with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto that talks between Moscow and Kiev were actually suspended "due to the Ukrainian side's lack of interest in constructive dialogue".