KYIV. May 6 (Interfax) - The resumption of the talks on settlement in Donbas in the so-called Normandy format (Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany) is a key priority for the team of Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been elected president of Ukraine, his adviser Oleksandr Danyliuk said.
"The resumption, intensification of the work of the Normandy format will be a key priority for us," Danyliuk told reporters in Brussels on Friday.
The meaning of the meeting is more important than its date, he said.
Danyliuk said he and Zelensky's other adviser Ruslan Riaboshapka had come to Brussels at the invitation of the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Ukrainian voters are waiting for this meeting, too, because they want "a solution to the problem in the eastern part of our country."
Zelensky's adviser said the meeting with the EU officials had addressed the preparations for the Ukraine-EU summit. "It is also one of the first steps taken by the new president," he said.
June will be eventful, Danyliuk said.
In July, there will be a conference in Toronto, which will address how Ukraine's partners can help it with the reforms. "It [the conference] will most likely be attended by Volodymyr Zelensky," he presidential adviser said.
Members of Zelensky's team may attend the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels in May, he said. "It's possible. We have not decided yet which member of our team will attend," Danyliuk said.
Danyliuk said he and Zelensky's other adviser Ruslan Riaboshapka had come to Brussels at the invitation of the European Commission and the European Parliament. They delivered speeches to the ambassadors of the European Union on Thursday.
The Eastern Partnership summit is scheduled for May 13. The Eastern Partnership is a foreign policy initiative of the European Union, which applies to six Eastern European neighbors of the European Union: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The initiative was formally established at the Prague foundation summit of the Eastern Partnership on May 7, 2009.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said earlier on Friday that the discussion of the new meeting on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine in the "Normandy format" may begin after the inauguration of the new president of the country.
"Let's wait for the inauguration and then we will start thinking about the practical content of the meeting in the Normandy format," Karasin told reporters in Tashkent.
The Normandy format can convene on various levels: expert, ministerial and top level, he said. "But the main thing is not the fact of the meeting, but the results that will need to be achieved at the first meeting of the Normandy format held under the new condition. We are thinking about that," Karasin said.
Karasin met with German Ambassador to Russia Ruediger von Fritsch on April 30. "At their meeting, the sides discussed the situation in Ukraine with a focus on the results of the presidential election there, prospects of the development of the Minsk settlement process based on their results, and further interaction in the Normandy format," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said in late April
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said in late April there were no plans to hold meetings of the Normandy Four (Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany) within the coming few weeks.
"I am not aware of any plans to hold a Normandy Four meeting at the top level in the coming weeks. A ministerial meeting is not planned, either," Klimkin told reporters in Kyiv on Friday.
The sides earlier discussed the possibility of holding a Normandy Four meeting to mark this year's anniversary of the Normandy format's first meeting, he said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier did not rule out a meeting of the Normandy Four leaders in June on the sidelines of ceremonies marking the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Normandy and the D-Day Landings.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 17 that he was unaware of any new Normandy format meeting earlier announced by Poroshenko.
"I don't know anything about it. Nobody has discussed that with us," Putin told reporters when asked whether he is planning to attend such a meeting. Putin said there was no such meeting in his working schedule.
The presidential election was held in Ukraine on April 21. Volodymyr Poroshenko defeated incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in that election. Zelensky was declared Ukraine's president-elect on April 30.
In the meantime, the date of Zelensky's inauguration has not been named yet. "It's an organizational issue because we currently don't even know the inauguration. Because it is a decision made by the Vekhovna Rada, and this decision, as we all understand, is not technical, it's political," Zelensky's adviser and Ukraine's former finance minister Oleksandr Danyliuk told reporters in Brussels on Friday.
Zelensky earlier said the talks in the Normandy format would continue and the work in the Minsk format should continue as well, but the latter needs reset and renewal of the staff. "We will work in the Normandy format in any case. We will continue the Minsk process. We will reset it," he said.
The Normandy Four is a group of high-ranking officials of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine created in June 2014 to settle the situation in Donbas. It can be held at the level of the heads of state and at the level of the foreign ministers.
The "Normandy format" began at the meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia in the Chateau de Benouville in Normandy, France, during the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the landing of the allies in 1944.