The Kremlin said Friday there were “no results” following a meeting of negotiators from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in efforts to resolve the crisis over Ukraine.
The diplomats met in the so-called “Normandy” format in Berlin on Thursday amid persisting fears that Russia is planning an invasion of its neighbor Ukraine.
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“We all witnessed how yesterday the meeting of political advisors of the Normandy Four ended with absolutely no results,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
He said some diplomats “have problems with reading the very short and extremely clear” text of the 2015 Minsk peace agreements between Kyiv and Moscow on the separatist conflict.
“Unfortunately, the Ukrainian side is doing everything not to fulfil its commitments,” Peskov added.
The four-way “Normandy” format was launched in 2014 in a bid to end fighting between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.
Thursday's meeting — which lasted more than nine hours — took place amid a flurry of European diplomacy to defuse tensions over Ukraine.
Western leaders have raised the alarm over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine after Moscow amassed more than 100,000 troops on the border with its ex-Soviet neighbor.
“We could not agree on a common document,” Andriy Yermak, Kyiv's negotiator and aide to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, said at a late night briefing after the meeting.
He added that “we will continue to work” and that “everyone is determined to reach a result.”
“Everyone today expressed absolute loyalty to the ceasefire, regardless of any conditions,” Yermak added.
According to Germany, the next meeting in the Normandy Format is scheduled for March.
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