Iran Press/ Europe: The meeting –known as the Normandy Four summit– will also be attended by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
There is cautious optimism that talks between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine on Monday 9th December could end the stalemate over a long-running conflict in the Donbass region.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have previously tried to broker several peace agreements, known as the 'Minsk agreements,' but these have yet to be fully implemented. It will be the first time that Putin and Zelensky have met face to face and the first time that the Normandy Four group has met since October 2016.
Since Zelensky’s election victory in April, a kind of détente has taken place between Kiev and Moscow, symbolized by an exchange of 70 prisoners, the withdrawal of belligerent troops from three small areas on the front line, and the surrender of Ukrainian warships seized by Russia.
In 2014, after a referendum, Russia integrated Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula whose population is largely ethnically Russian but was part of Ukraine. Western powers have vowed never to recognize the integration.
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