President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came face to face in a summit brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The two leaders (Russia and Ukraine) agreed to implement a full and comprehensive ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the end of 2019. They also agreed at the summit to swap all remaining prisoners from the conflict in eastern Ukraine by the end of the year. The two countries pledged to disengage military forces in three additional regions of Ukraine by the end of March 2020. Our correspondent reported that Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent nine hours in discussion at the summit but no definitive agreement was discussed on the political issues that stand in the way of resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine which started in 2014. President Putin called for a change in the constitution of Ukraine to give special status to the Donbas region which is held by the rebels and he also asked for amnesty for those who took part in Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in April 2014. More than 13,000 have lost their lives and hundreds of thousands fled their homes since the conflict in eastern Ukraine started in 2014. The two parties agreed to hold another talks within four months to measure the progress of the ceasefire.
Source: Viewers Corner News.