For the first time, Russian President will face Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelinski in France.
As a four-way summit on Ukraine subject will be held in Paris on December 9 and will witness face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinski.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also take part in efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists are active, the Elysee said in a statement.
The statement pointed out that “the summit will be held at a time when significant progress has been made since the summer in negotiations that allowed the cessation of hostilities in several hotbeds of tension and will allow the implementation of a new chapter in the Minsk agreements”, according to the local French website “France 24”.
The summit aims to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian troops and separatists whom the West and Kiev say Russia supports, a charge Moscow denies.
The idea of a new four-way summit on Ukraine was put forward during a Macron meeting with Putin on August 19 on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz (southeastern France).
Macron, who wants a rapprochement between the European Union and Moscow, sees it as evidence that Europe and Russia can settle together the continent’s problems, which question the role of NATO.
A similar four-way summit on Ukraine was held on June 6, 2014, at the Palais de Benoville in Normandy (northwestern France).
