You're reading: Expert: Normandy format talks a ‘positive development’

The latest round of Normandy format talks between Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia, slated for Oct. 19, are a positive development, even though previous meetings have produced little progress, a foreign affairs analyst has told the Kyiv Post.

The leaders of the “Normandy Four” countries, named after the French region where such talks were first held on June 6, 2014, are to meet in Berlin, Germany to discuss the war in the Donbas, where Kremlin-backed armed groups have occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts since April 2014.

Daria Gaidai, an analyst at the Institute of World Policy in Kyiv, told the Kyiv Post ahead of the talks that Ukraine would use the meeting to push for a clear timeline on implementing the Minsk peace process, which was first agreed in September 2014, but which has since made little headway.

“For Ukraine it provides an opportunity to draw attention to the situation in Donbas and to discuss a roadmap for the implementation of the Minsk peace deal, namely the sequence of security and political steps and benchmarks,” Gaidai said.

“Ukraine’s position is clear: security first.”

International tensions

The second Minsk peace deal, signed in February 2015, included provisions for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and local elections. But Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of failing to uphold their part of the pact.

A statement released by the office of the Ukrainian president said the the heads of state of France and Germany had agreed to the talks in order to “put pressure on Russia to fulfill the security package of the Minsk agreements.”

The security package includes a full ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact, the removal of foreign fighters from Ukrainian soil, and the return of government control of the border between Ukraine and Russia.

The talks in Berlin come as Russia faces intense international criticism for its role in the Syrian civil war. Following threats of increased sanctions made by Washington in recent days, Moscow announced an eight-hour halt to its campaign of airstrikes on the Syrian city of Aleppo.

According to Gaidai, the Kremlin’s agreement to take part in the Normandy meeting “might be part of a wider strategy to decrease the level of Russia-West tensions.”

Kremlin denials

The war in eastern Ukraine has to date claimed around 10,000 lives, with casualties and ceasefire violations still recorded almost daily.  Moscow has continually denied its involvement, saying that any Russian soldiers found to be fighting there are “volunteers.”

However, there is a great deal of evidence that the Kremlin has sent not only “volunteers” to fight against Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, but also regular troops, along with large amounts of weapons and ammunition. Numerous pieces of military hardware that could only have come from Russia, such as the latest models of T-72 tanks, electronic warfare stations, spy drones, mine clearing equipment and anti-aircraft missiles have been spotted in areas controlled by Kremlin-backed armed groups.

One anti-aircraft system, a powerful Buk missile launcher, was sent into Ukraine by Russia in the days preceding the shoot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, and was returned to Russia the next day, according to the findings of a Dutch-led international criminal investigation into the tragedy.

Two hundred and ninety-eight people died when MH17, en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, was shot down by a Buk missile launched from an area controlled by Kremlin-backed armed groups in eastern Ukraine, investigators said in their initial report on the tragedy on Sept. 28.