PARIS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a firm line against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday at a much-anticipated peace meeting that brought few substantial agreements.
“I don’t see any major breakthrough,” a central European diplomat told the Washington Examiner after reviewing the results of the Normandy Format meeting. “All difficult stuff is postponed for another four months.”
That is when Zelensky and Putin will meet for a second time under the auspices of the Normandy Format, a diplomatic forum overseen by France and Germany. Their first meeting in Paris was regarded as a high-stakes encounter for Zelensky, who came into the session weakened by the U.S. impeachment controversy that undercut his negotiating position.
In Paris, the new Ukrainian president avoided making major concessions to Russia, as the two sides made small-scale agreements while digging in on the most important issues.
“Ukraine is an independent, democratic state, whose development vector will always be chosen exclusively by the people of Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters after a press conference late Monday evening.
That comment was a shot at Putin, who sent Russian forces into Ukraine to seize territory after a pro-Russian Ukrainian president was impeached and removed following protests in Kyiv in 2014. Putin, for his part, continued to deny responsibility for the violence. He maintained that the conflict would end only when Zelensky agreed to meet with the officials of the Kremlin-controlled forces in Donbass, as the war-torn region of eastern Ukraine is known.
“No conflict in the world was resolved without a direct dialogue between the conflicting parties,” Putin said.
The two sides agreed to a prisoner exchange to take place by the end of the year, as well as a full ceasefire and a plan to withdraw forces from a few places while working on an operation to clear land-mines.
“For me, the most important thing is human life, I always said so,” Zelensky said. “For me, the main victory — I went with it — we agreed on the exchange of ‘all for all.’”
Some observers are skeptical that the truce deal will last. “Cease fire was agreed multiple times before,” the central European diplomat said.
The real debate centers on whether the Russian-controlled forces will withdraw from eastern Ukraine before or after local elections. Putin wants the elections to take place before the forces leave, which Ukrainian and western governments say would allow the Kremlin to rig the vote. Putin maintains that a deal that he signed in Minsk with Zelensky’s predecessor, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, stipulated that the elections had to take place first.
“There is no alternative to the Minsk Agreements, and everything should be done to implement them in full,” the Russian leader said.
Zelensky didn’t budge on Monday. “Only if security is ensured, political issues may be resolved,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron declared the summit a success. “I believe that the mere fact that this forum was held and that negotiations lasting several hours took place at it is an achievement in itself,” he said.
