MINSK, 8 January (BelTA) - The latest episode of the documentary series Time Chose Us aired by the Belarus 1 TV channel recounted the Normandy Four meeting which took place in Minsk in February 2015. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany gathered in the Belarusian capital to settle the armed conflict that erupted in Donbass, BelTA reported.
French President Francois Hollande was the first to land at Minsk National Airport. A few minutes later, German Chancellor Angela Merkel descended the ramp. Later, flights from Kiev and Moscow were welcomed at the airport.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was the first to arrive at the Palace of Independence. Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande arrived at the meeting together. Russian leader Vladimir Putin was the next one to come to the Palace of Independence. The talks started behind closed doors. Then the Normandy Four expanded the format. Later, they went for one-on-one talks again. This is how the leaders of the four countries communicated until morning.
“They ate scrambled eggs, cheese, dairy products. They drank a few buckets of coffee to keep themselves awake. As I understand, they slept in shifts, especially the experts. The heads of state, of course, had no opportunity to rest,” Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Everyone had an understanding that the Normandy Four meeting in the Belarusian capital was the last chance to restore peace. First of all, this concerned Ukraine. It took them 15 hours to find a peaceful compromise. The document primarily provided for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons in order to create security zones in the region.
“This is not the best night of my life, but the morning, in my opinion, is good. Despite all the difficulties of the negotiation process, we managed to agree on the main thing,” Vladimir Putin said after the talks.
Unfortunately, regular violations of the agreements by Kiev would destroy hope for peace for Donetsk and Lugansk.
“Do not exaggerate the fact that these negotiations proceeded for so long. Issues of war and peace take months or even years to resolve. Here they managed to reach an agreement to suspend the war in just 15 hours. Well done. The main thing still lies ahead. We need to put it all into practice. We will see how it goes,” Aleksandr Lukashenko told the journalists.
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