Putin, Merkel meet to discuss Ukraine, among other topics

The ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine was among
the key topics discussed between German Chancellor Merkel and Russian President
Putin at their closed meeting on Aug. 18 outside of Berlin. They said they
would discuss the latest measures to resolve the war in Donbas, as well as the
introduction of UN peacekeepers at a press conference before their meeting.
Putin and Merkel spoke alone for much of the meeting that lasted three hours,
the Interfax news agency reported.

Afterwards, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told reporters the two leaders expressed regret that the fulfillment of
the Minsk Accords has been stuck. “On the whole, thoughts on the situation in
Ukraine were discussed,” he said. “They expressed sympathy regarding the total
derailment of the process to implement the Minsk Accords,” he said. The next
Normandy Format meeting could occur in Paris, though no date was mentioned.

Zenon Zawada: We are confident that Putin has no intention of resolving the war in
Donbas for at least the next 15 months. We are confident he has no interest in
introducing UN peacekeepers during this time. We assume the Western leaders
also understand that Putin has little incentive to resolve this conflict before
Ukraine’s parliamentary elections in October 2019. So we can only surmise that
Merkel and Putin discussed steps that can be taken in 2020 to resolve the war
in Donbas if their talks on Ukraine had any point at all. It’s worth mentioning
that no statements were made on whether the release of Ukrainian political
prisoners was discussed, particularly film director Oleg Sentsov. That doesn’t
mean this topic wasn’t raised, however.