Talks between Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France on the Ukrainian crisis will take place in Moscow on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday.
These will be the first negotiations in the so-called Normandy format since 2019. Russia will be represented at the talks by Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.
Germany will be represented by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Foreign Affairs Adviser, Jens Pletners, and France will be represented by President Emanuel Macron’s diplomat, Emanuel Bons. It is not yet known who will represent Ukraine.
German government spokesman Stephen Hebestreit said Pletner would travel to Moscow this week, but declined to confirm newspaper reports of Scholz’s possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in January.
Representatives of these four countries met for the first time in Ukraine’s crisis talks in Normandy, France, on July 6, 2014, when Russia had occupied and annexed Ukraine-owned Crimea.
The United States and the West believe that Russia may be preparing another large-scale attack on Ukraine.
Russia denies allegations of an invasion of Ukraine by its troops. According to Putin, Moscow is taking a defensive stance due to fears that Kiev is getting too close to NATO.
At a video summit on December 7, US President Joe Biden warned Putin that the United States would impose unprecedented sanctions on Russia if it attacked Ukraine.
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