The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine signs “Steinmeier formula”

03.10.2019, Moscow.

The Envoys in the Trilateral Contact Group on situation in Ukraine signed the “Steinmeier formula”, Interfax reports on October 1, citing an unnamed well-informed source.

According to the news agency, the Contact Group reached an agreement on the disengagement of forces in two “pilot areas”.

On September 2, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister expressed agreement with the “Steinmeier formula” stipulating that the temporary law on the special status of the certain areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions would be adopted for the period of local elections and would enter into force only after the elections. On September 18, Russia’s Envoy in the Trilateral Contact Group Boris Gryzlov stated that the Ukrainian representatives refused to sign this formula.

On September 25, the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov said that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky agreed on resolving the conflict in the framework of the Minsk agreements. Before the presidential elections, one of Zelensky’s representatives expressed unwillingness to grant special status to the areas not under Kiev’s control.

Update

Later that day, the Head of the Verkhovna Rada [the Ukrainian Parliament – translator’s note] Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation Bogdan Yaremenko denied signing the “Steinmeier formula”. On his Facebook page, he wrote that Ukraine’s Envoy in the Trilateral Contact Group, Leonid Kuchma, only expressed his agreement in writing to the text agreed upon by the Political Advisers in the Normandy format in Minsk on September 1, 2019.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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