• Post-war conflict in Ukraine continues to cause deaths

Summit on the Elysee over Ukraine. The French president tries to revive the peace process of a conflict that lasts for five years and in which 14,000 people have died. With the help of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron welcomes the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine, Volodimir Zelesnsky.

In diplomatic jargon, this group of four countries is known as Normandy format , because the first time, in 2014, they met in this French region. The Summit itself is a positive sign because it has not been held for three years.

Flashback Russia annexed Crimea after a pro-Western popular uprising overthrew the pro-Russian president. Then, separatist groups appeared in the Russian-speaking regions of Eastern Ukraine where two republics were proclaimed in Donetsk and Lugansk, once the country's industrial strongholds.

The Crimean issue is outside the scope of the Normandy format meetings. The good offices of Berlin and Paris resulted in 2015 in the Minsk agreements that have reduced the fighting. But along a 500-kilometer front there are 80,000 combatants with shots and dead almost daily. The West and Ukraine accuse Russia of financing and arming the rebels, which Moscow denies.

So, Macron, who has an open front at home with the transport strike against his pension reform plans, has played thoroughly as a mediator. He received Zelensky before he reached the Presidency in May. The old comedian booked his first official trip to Paris. Macron has approached the Kremlin in recent months and received Putin at his summer residence.

Those contacts have given their diplomatic fruit: Putin and Zelensky are going to see their faces alone, tonight in Paris. In principle after the meeting to four that is celebrated at this time and before a dinner that was not in the program. The marathon must conclude with a joint appearance before the media of the four leaders.

The Summit has begun by bilateral meetings of Macron and Merkel, separately, with the two leaders of the Eastern countries. Then, the chancellor and the French president have met to share their views.

It is not clear if the Summit will produce a final statement or a new road map.

Putin does not seem willing to give in to anything essential, not to mention Crimea. Zelensky, although he won at the polls with 70% of the vote, does not have much room.

Before the official comitives arrived at the Elysium, two militants of the Feminist feminist group have tried to enter the palace. The police have stopped them. They protested against Putin, the last to arrive aboard a tank car as large (and ugly) as that of the American president.

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  • Vladimir Putin
  • Ukraine
  • Russia
  • Paris
  • Angela Merkel

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