Poroshenko to meet with EU leaders, without Russia

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are planning to meet on Aug. 24 in Berlin, according to an Aug. 19 announcement by the press service of the Presidential Administration.  Poroshenko will discuss the situation with safety in the region and will “offer a proposal with the goal of not allowing a negative scenario in the development of events in Donbas,” the announcement said. They will also discuss the current condition of upholding the Minsk accords, the implementation of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement and a Ukraine-EU visa-free regime, ensuring energy security and implementing reforms in Ukraine. Poroshenko will visit Germany just after Independence Day commemorations on Aug. 24, the statement said.

This planned meeting, as well as future meetings between Poroshenko and EU leaders in Brussels, “testifies to the mutual deep concern regarding the deterioration of the situation with security in the region as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine,” said Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, the deputy head of the Presidential Administration. “Against the background of active and targeted steps taken by Ukraine with the goal of fulfilling the Minsk accords in all of its dimensions …, conscious efforts by the Russian side to torpedo the peace process are being observed,” he said, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The Aug. 24 trilateral talks between Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande is not a meeting in the framework of the “Normandy format,” but a parallel process, said on Aug. 19 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as reported by Interfax. “Of course, we will intently follow its preparation and will attentively look at how it will conclude,” he said. “For us, there’s an obvious need to exert additional effort on Kyiv to convince it that accords and the obligations accepted in Minsk on Feb. 12 need to be fulfilled.”

The leaders of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic said they retain the right to not recognize the results of the Aug. 24 meeting if Russia isn’t a participant, said on Aug. 19 Gennady Tsipkalov, one of the leaders, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. “Without the participation of Russia, these talks can be considered as unilateral, and these kinds of meetings never led to a positive result,” he said. “It’s not understood how our fate can be decided not only without our direct participation, but without the participation of Russia.”

Zenon Zawada: The announcement of the talks is intended to send the signal to the Russian leadership that Western leaders will not engage in dialogue if Russia continues to aggravate the violence in Donbas. It’s also intended as a signal of support for Ukraine on its symbolic Independence Day holiday. The best thing that the talks can produce is strategies for dealing with Russian belligerence, in our view.