This meeting was intended to defuse the crisis after a series of talks between Russians and Americans last week.
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They hoped to get one “clear indication of the state of mind of the Russians”. The German Chancellor’s diplomatic advisers as well as the Russian, Ukrainian and French presidents met on Wednesday January 26 in Paris to try to find a way out of the crisis in Ukraine, announced the French presidency. This meeting was intended to defuse the situation after a series of talks between Russians and Americans last week, in the context of a continuous rise in tensions around Ukraine.
“We want de-escalation, which requires both dialogue and deterrence. A dialogue is taking place on sanctions with European and American partners and the institutions, so that this deterrence is sufficiently credible, so that the dialogue is credible The two feed off each other.”, commented the French presidency. “But these sanctions must not lead to aftershocks that would cost us a boomerang. Sanctions are not the be-all and end-all of the response”, underlined the Elysée.
After their marathon meeting of just under nine hours, the negotiators said they were staying “committed to smoothing over current disagreements in future work”, according to a joint press release. The discussions were not “not easy”, reported the Russian special envoy on the Ukrainian conflict, Dmitry Kozak. “Despite differences in reading, the truce must persist, the ceasefire must be maintained” between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, he added. A new appointment has been set in two weeks in Berlin. “We hope that our colleagues have understood our arguments and that in two weeks we will have results”, added the Russian envoy. “We want to maintain this dialogue”, for his part, declared the Ukrainian negotiator Andriï Iermak from the Embassy of Ukraine.
“In the current context, we got a good signal today in difficult conditions”, underlined the French presidency. “We got the re-engagement signal we were looking for”, she added.