Lavrov says he heard nothing about Normandy format meeting scheduled for March

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assures that he has heard nothing about the meeting of the foreign ministers in the Normandy format scheduled for late March.
"I have not heard, except your question, that a meeting of foreign ministers in the Normandy format is scheduled in a month," Lavrov told a Russian journalist at a joint press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Albania's Prime Minister and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Edi Rama in Moscow on February 27, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Lavrov also commented on the possibility of holding a Normandy format summit in April. According to him, Russia will discuss the data of the next summit "only when everything that was agreed upon in Paris, including normalization on the ground, mine clearance, political issues related to the Steinmeier formula, consolidation of aspects of special status on a permanent basis in the legislation of Ukraine, is fulfilled."

"And the second requirement is that we will talk about the date of the new summit when we prepare the draft final document and sign it. This will be done in order to avoid attempts to ruin already reached agreements during the summit: I mean the disengagement of forces and equipment that must have taken place along the demarcation line, but President Zelensky changed the draft, which had been agreed with his staff," the Russian minister added.

The Russian foreign minister once again stated that the Russian Federation opposed the deployment of UN peacekeeping mission to Donbas and the establishment of its control over the territory of some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and governance structures as a necessary condition for holding free and democratic elections.

On February 26, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko announced that a meeting of foreign ministers in the Normandy format is planned in a month to prepare the Normandy Four summit.