During Thursday’s negotiations between the political advisers of the presidents of Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France, the differences in the interpretation of the Minsk Agreements were not possible to resolve, said Kozak, who is also the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration.

He recalled that during the previous meeting held in Paris on January 26, the parties agreed that the Normandy format should overcome all disagreements on the interpretation of the Minsk Accords, because the group is the control mechanism in relation to the negotiation process in the Contact Group.

He emphasized that Kiev refused to overcome the differences over the future post-conflict settlement in Donbass. “Both Germany and France had a common understanding on how matters should be advanced in the political sphere, but Ukraine’s stance is inflexible,” he stated.

Kozak noted that the meeting tried to agree that a negotiation on the future status of Donbass as part of post-conflict Ukraine should be initiated during the next meeting of the Contact Group. “We could not even get Ukraine to agree to this talk,” he said.

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