The Normandy group summit mainly tackled the situation in eastern regions of Ukraine and the implementation of the cease-fire Minsk protocol signed in February.
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The elections will take place in accordance with a Ukrainian electoral law that will have to be passed under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Vienna-based intergovernmental body. “We don’t want elections to get held in eastern Ukrainian territories under conditions that would not respect Minsk”, said Hollande, speaking after hosting talks with the Russian, Ukrainian and German leaders.
“We are far from a resolution, but there are elements that boost our confidence that the crisis can be overcome, and the most important point is that there is now no shooting”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said ahead of the meeting on October 1.
The Minsk accord contains a year-end deadline for Ukraine to recover full control over its border.
Even after the lighter weapons are withdrawn, the sides still need to end a deadlock over the ground rules for local elections.
Hollande said this meeting “is being held in a different format” from the previous one, referring to the ceasefire in Donbas.
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The four leaders in Paris also noted positive developments on the withdrawal of weapons with a caliber of less than 100 mm from areas of fighting in east Ukraine, Peskov said.
