The main condition for holding the next summit of the leaders of the Normandy format is the implementation of the agreements reached at the previous summit in Paris in December 2019, as stated by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak.
“The main requirement for the Normandy format summit is the fulfillment of everything agreed upon at the end of last year in Paris. Ukraine has always said and always does everything to fulfill it. But unfortunately, not everything depends on us. There are issues where we have done our best, but the other party is not so committed to the obligations undertaken,” he said during an online briefing at the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Andriy Yermak noted that among the main requirements is the ceasefire in Donbas. But unfortunately, the shelling is continued. The Head of the President's Office noted that Ukrainian fighters would respond to such actions by the enemy, but that did not change Ukraine's striving for peace.
“The Ukrainian party always reiterates that if someone attacks us, if someone shoots at our fighters, our army is ready and responds every time to these attempts. But this will not stop our pursuit of peace and the fulfillment of those arrangements that exist today. First and foremost, these are the Minsk agreements, which are today the only platform for continuing the negotiations,” he said.
Regarding the Advisory Board, the creation of which was discussed during the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group, Andriy Yermak reported that the given issue had been discussed in the format of a telephone conversation between political advisers of the Normandy Four.
“The idea of creating such a board will be further considered after consultations with our partners from France, Germany and the OSCE. These consultations are still ongoing,” the Head of the Office of the President noted.
Andriy Yermak said that during the TCG meeting on March 11, in which he participated, the parties discussed, in particular, the initiative to create an Advisory Board with participation of Ukrainian citizens from among internally displaced persons.
“I would like to remind you that the Minsk agreements have signatures of representatives of the so-called LPR and DPR. These agreements contain the conditions under which Ukraine must agree on some legislative acts with the representatives of the territories,” Andriy Yermak stressed.
According to the Head of the President's Office, Ukraine has never and will never negotiate with DPR/LPR and terrorists, but it is ready to speak with Ukrainian citizens who temporarily reside in the occupied territories and are not parties to the war in Donbas.
"We wanted to end the monopoly of representatives of LPR and DPR to represent certain regions of Donbas," he said, noting that the Advisory Board is the implementation of the idea of eliminating this monopoly.