Drafts ‘Normandy format’ resolutions that may be called the ‘Macron formula’ may become a plan for liberation of Donbas, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.
“Our agreements, drafts of possible agreements in the ‘Normandy format’ – and they may be called ‘the Macron formula’ – we will be able to present to the public a plan of achieving peace and de-occupation of eastern Ukraine,” Poroshenko said at a joint press conference with the French president in Paris on June 26.
Macron, for his part, said: “We expect a result. The solution I have offered to President Poroshenko, all parties to the ‘Normandy format’ and, essentially, I have already offered that to Vladimir Putin: I would like the tentative conditions to be fulfilled and the efforts to be taken by the parties to be stated on paper first.”
The French president said the conditions should address the withdrawal of troops and weapons, access of international monitors to all sites and release of hostages.
Macron said one should stop hiding the real situation and begin objective assessment of the situation.
“We need to have an objective picture. When all heads of states agree with this objective picture, thanks to the work of our joint teams, we can prepare a foundation on which we can meet, having all initial data,” he said, adding that progress will occur in this situation.
The French president said the conflict in Donbas has lasted for a long time and there is a need to make a collective decision that will produce a positive result. “I have to do more work on this document in detail and in its final edition, and it seems to me that Chancellor [Angela] Merkel – I will discuss this matter with her – will agree with this method,” Macron said.
