Macron Wants To Meet Zelenskyy After Talks With Putin In August - Kiev's Ex-Representative

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to hold negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that are set to take place this month, Roman Bezsmertny, Kiev's ex-representative in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine said on Friday

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2019) French President Emmanuel Macron wants to hold negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that are set to take place this month, Roman Bezsmertny, Kiev's ex-representative in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine said on Friday.

Putin and Macron will meet on August 19 in France to discuss bilateral cooperation, as well as issues of the global agenda, such as Syria, Libya, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the Ukrainian conflict settlement.

"I am concerned that Kiev still does not know that Macron really wants to meet President Zelenskyy on the Mediterranean coast after talks with Putin. Lack of green light from Bankova Street [Ukrainian presidential office] that such a meeting is possible worries me, because I know there is demand for such a meeting," Bezsmertny told the Novoye Vremya radio station.

Bezsmertny stressed that Macron wanted to meet Zelenskyy "face-to-face" after the negotiations with the Russian leader.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian government launched an offensive against self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, which proclaimed independence after what they considered a coup in Ukraine two months earlier.

Since September 2014, peace in the region has been mediated by the Minsk Contact Group. Despite the fact that several documents on de-escalation measures have been adopted over this time, the warring parties continue to violate the ceasefire.