Russia warns failure of Kosovo- Serbia

Russian MPJ spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said dialogue between the two countries has every opportunity to repeat the fate of the Norman format (negotiation for a peaceful solution to the situation in southeast Ukraine, in which Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France participated), the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said at a news conference, media reports in Serbia.

“Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina under EU auspices has all chances of repeating the fate of Normandy's format. I invite all in the region experts, policyologists, of course journalists and the general public to think about what role the agreements will play with the West and if all of this is a repeat of the history with Normandy format”, Zakharova said.

Because there (in the Minsk accords) had signatures of people of global importance, they were not just people representing certain political forces, they were people who had absolute authority to verify such documents, I mean Western countries”, the Russian MPJ spokeswoman added.

What's Normandy format?
The Norman format, also known as the Norman Contact Group, is a group of states that met in an effort to resolve the war in Donba and, wider, Russo-Ukrainian War. The four countries making up the German group, Russia, Ukraine and France met for the first informal time in 2014 during the 70th anniversary of D-Day celebrations in Normandy, France.

The group was established on June 6th 2014, when leaders from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine met in the 15th anniversary of the D-Day Allies landing in Normandy. It operates mainly through calls between leaders and their respective foreign affairs ministers. Normandy's format has sometimes expanded to include Belarus, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Appointments

2014

Early talks in 2014 led to the establishment of the Trepal Contact Group to facilitate further talks between Russia and Ukraine. This, together with mediation through the Norman format, directly led to the creation of the Minsk Protocol. This agreement, signed in September 2014, outlined several peace provisions in the Donbas region and in Crimea.

2015

After a collapse of relations in early 2015, the Norman format met during talks in Belarus from February 11th to February 12, 2015. This was prompted by a joint French-German diplomatic plan, which was negotiated overnight for more than sixteen hours, while the group met in Minsk. The package that came out, Minsk II, negotiated ceasefires as well as planned internal reforms in Ukraine.

Negotiations and negotiations were blocked from 2016 until the fall of 2019.

2019

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his inaugural speech in May 2019, made peace talks with Russia his top priority. He reaffirmed this priority in July of that year, when he invited through YouTube other nations into a dialogue. He said: “Let's discuss who the Crimea belongs to and who isn't in the Donbas region”.

On July 18th, 2019, a ceasefire “-all-involved” was agreed with arbitration by the Trepal Contact Group for Ukraine.

In early September 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared their intention to hold a Normandi-format meeting. On September 21st, “continued disagreements” were quoted as causing “a political double withdrawal” over the preliminary negotiations, as they had been since the summit of the Normandy format in Berlin. Also in late September, a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Zelensky, in which he described France and Germany's support as vacant, damaged Zelensky's image in Europe. On October 10th, Zelensky reiterated his statement at a public press conference. On October 16th, French and German leaders decided in favour of another meeting of the Normandy Format.

2022

A meeting of the Normandy Format among representatives of the four countries was held in Paris on January 26th 2022 in the context of the initial invasion of Ukraine in 2022 from Russia, to be followed by a telephone conversation between the president of France and Russia on January 28th. Representatives of four governments confirmed their support for Minsk II and engaged in resolving existing disputes. They supported an unconditional ceasefire and supported the strengthening of the July 22nd 2020 ceasefire, despite their disagreements over the implementation of other Minsk components. 2 / 1

A subsequent meeting was scheduled to be held in Berlin two weeks later. No joint statement was agreed on at the end of the nine-hour meeting of the Normandy Format held on February 10th, but representatives planned to meet again in March.

This meeting was never held after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Zelensky later announced that the Normandy format was “destroyed” due to Russia's actions. France and Germany continue to be involved in peace talks between the two countries, also providing support to Ukraine while judging Russia.