Normandy Format Foreign Ministers to Discuss Ukraine Peace Process Online on 30 April

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A video conference of foreign ministers from the Normandy format countries — Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany ⁠— on the Ukrainian crisis settlement will be held on 30 April.

The meeting will focus on assessing the implementation of decisions made at the Normandy format summit in Paris last December, including an "all-for-all" exchange of conflict-related detainees, a ceasefire, and the coordination of new areas for the disengagement of forces. Moreover, the parties are expected to address the coronavirus pandemic.

Russia will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Normandy format was created in 2016 in order to address the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The civil war in the country has been raging since 2014 when Donetsk and Lugansk declared their independence from Kiev following a violent coup d'etat in the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin (2ndL), German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (3rdL), French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (2ndR) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (3rdR) sit down for talks in the so-called Normandy format at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich, southern Germany, on February 18, 2017

© AFP 2023 / Sven Hoppe / POOL

The latest meeting of the Normandy Four leaders took place on 9 December in Paris after a three-year hiatus. The countries adopted a joint communique that outlined the next steps in the peace process, resulting in a prisoner swap and a ceasefire in the region.