Kiev says no plans for Zelensky-Putin talks ahead of Normandy Four summit

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko

KIEV, November 14. /TASS/: Ukraine is not planning to arrange a bilateral meeting between President Vladimir Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin before the Normandy Four summit, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko said on Thursday.

"We are not planning a bilateral meeting with Putin," Pristaiko told a joint news conference with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg.

Kiev expects that Zelensky will have a chance to talk to Putin during the upcoming meeting between the Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) leaders, Pristaiko noted.

Normandy Four agenda

Leaders of the Normandy Four will discuss a prisoner swap between the conflicting sides in Donbass, access to the region for international humanitarian groups and further disengagement of forces on the contact line at their upcoming meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko said in an interview with the BBC.

Speaking on a final document that the sides are expected to adopt at the summit, Pristaiko stated: "This is a communique. This is a very simple document. If we manage to carry out a large-scale swap by this meeting, it will be written down there that the leaders welcome this exchange and delegate their bodies to complete the all-for-all exchange."

"It will be outlined there that the sides demand that access to the territories of the so-called Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics be opened for humanitarian international organizations such as the Red Cross," Pristaiko added, noting that some 500 people have gone missing and their families had no information about their fate.

The document is also expected to declare that the disengagement at three areas will open the way for launching the same process at new sites.