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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced during a press conference that Ukraine has approved the Steinmeier Formula, which was the “final obstacle” to a new Normandy Format summit. He said that the Steinmeier Formula consists of several provisions. Approving these terms assumes that a special manner of local self-governance will be implemented in several Donbas regions and that elections will be held there. The details of the implementation of this plan will be formulated during the Normandy Format summit and included in a new law on the special status. “The temporary law on the special manner of local self-governance in the...

Moscow (AFP) - France's foreign and defence ministers met their counterparts in Moscow on Monday as President Emmanuel Macron pushes for a detente in Europe's ties with Russia. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defence Minister Florence Parly held the first meeting in the so-called "2+2" format suspended after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Ties between Russia and Europe have been deeply strained since 2014, when the European Union and United States imposed sanctions over the annexation of Crimea and Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Macron has embarked on a bid to bring Russia in from...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to arrive in Berlin on Wednesday as part of a summit hosted by Chancellor Angela Merkel on the Ukraine conflict. Merkel’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert announced on Tuesday that Putin would arrive for the summit alongside President François Hollande of France and Petro Poroshenko, the leader of Ukraine. It will be Putin’s first visit to Berlin since Russia annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, leading to EU sanctions against Moscow. Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine will hold the summit in Berlin on Wednesday to “evaluate the implementation” of the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine, the...

Will diplomacy prevail in Ukraine? The Nation’s Stephen Cohen joined The John Batchelor Show on Tuesday to discuss the feasibility of the Minsk II agreement and the increased war footing among NATO officials and policymakers in Washington. Cohen argued that the “rhetorical war” on Minsk II is based on “political ideological imaginations,” because there is no “hard intelligence to back up the claims that there’s been this massive Russian invasion.” If Minsk II fails and fighting escalates, the United States and NATO face “a real chance of war with Russia,” Cohen said.