Meeting in the Normandy format at the level of the presidents of France, Ukraine, Russia and the chancellor of Germany on the Ukrainian crisis settlement, which was earlier planned to be held on January 15 in Astana, has been postponed for “several weeks”.
Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs Elmar Brok announced this in Strasbourg during the Committee meeting, UNIAN reports.
“The meeting, which was planned for this week, won’t be held. There is no agreement among political directors and ministers (of foreign affairs –Ed.) on that the achieved progress is sufficient for this meeting to be held, despite all the preparatory work. It was to be held in the Normandy format. However, it will be postponed for several weeks,” he said.
In this regard, Brok said that “he is no more optimistic, as no agreement has been reached on a sufficient number of issues, which could be really important for the outcome”.
In addition, Brok believes that the main issue, which should be fulfilled, is strengthening of the Ukrainian border.
“We see that there are 7,500 Russian soldiers stationed in Ukraine’s east. We see that the main issue of the agreement is to strengthen the border as the situation becomes a frozen conflict, or it may already have become such,” he said.
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