Speaking at a late-night press conference, Kremlin Deputy Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak admitted that it had not been possible for Russia and Ukraine to reconcile their conflicting positions regarding Minsk II, a treaty signed in 2015 in an attempt to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine's Donbass region.
The Normandy Format was founded in 2014 when France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine met on the sidelines of a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day allied landings. The group convened to find a solution for the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014 after the events of the Maidan, when violent street protests toppled the democratically elected government in Ukraine. A year later, the group helped create Minsk II, an accord intended to create a path for Kiev to solve its crisis.
The four countries met for the first time this year last month, when political advisers came together in Paris for a round of discussions, with the idea of coming to a consensus on the future of the treaty agreed in Minsk seven years ago. Although the previous meeting was described as progressing the talks forward, Thursday's meeting appears to have been less successful.
Kozak, in a briefing he gave alongside Ukrainian representative Andrey Yermak following the talks, mourned:
"We did not manage to overcome [our disagreements]. Unfortunately, almost nine hours of negotiations ended without any visible, tangible results."As things currently stand, Ukraine alleges that Russia is breaching Minsk II, which states that foreign troops must leave the Donbass region.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, says Ukraine is also not upholding its side of the bargain by refusing to give the Donbass special status, despite having previously agreed to do so. Kiev says granting further autonomy to the region via decentralization would affect the sanctity of the state of Ukraine.
Following Thursday's meeting, Kozak pinned the blame on Germany and France, accusing them of refusing to "show the necessary firmness" during the talks, making them pointless.
In turn, Yermak, who serves as chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expressed hope that the advisers would talk again in the near future:
"I hope that we will meet again very soon and continue these negotiations. Everyone is determined to achieve a result."
The Kremlin mocked the West's propaganda campaign aimed at accusing Russia of planning the invasion of neighboring Ukraine, denouncing the "peak hysteria" of the United States on this issue.
The comments came through the Kremlin's chief foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, during a presser on Saturday, in which he discussed the contents of a previous phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart, Joe Biden.
He said the phone call between the two leaders came against a backdrop of "hysteria" in the West about a "Russian invasion" which he called absurd.
"The hysteria has reached its peak," the Russian official said, adding that the American side had asked to arrange telephone talks between Biden and Putin on Saturday, even though such a call was originally scheduled for Monday.
"We cannot understand why false information about our intentions is being passed on to the media," Ushakov told reporters.
He said Putin once again complained that the West armed Ukraine and that the Kiev authorities "sabotaged" the West - mediated peace accords to end a conflict that lasted years in Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine.
Ushakov said the one-hour telephone conversation between the two leaders was "balanced and professional", adding that "the presidents agreed to continue contacts at all levels".
The politically charged and media-enabled campaign helped to stir up tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.
The West says Russia has amassed tens of thousands of soldiers on Ukraine's borders, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arguing that Moscow could start invading the former Soviet republic "at any time".
Russia has categorically rejected the Western accusations, stating that the deployment of troops is a response to the Western military alliance of NATO activities near the Russian borders. Moscow also claims it is free to move its troops within its borders.
The United States and its allies, meanwhile, have sent large contingents of troops to Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe as part of efforts to strengthen NATO's military build-up in the region.
As part of a series of security demands, Russia asked Washington and the European Union to ensure that NATO would never allow Ukraine to join the Atlantic bloc.
The Western alliance refused to provide such a guarantee, but sent written responses to Russia's security concerns, which Moscow has so far deemed insufficient. Even the Western allies have faced Moscow with their own counter-proposals.
During the phone call at Biden's request, Putin told the American president that Moscow would re-examine the ideas the Western alliance put forward to respond to Russia's alleged security demands, noting that they have not yet addressed Moscow's main concerns. Ushakov noted.
"Unfortunately ... these considerations do not affect the central and key elements of Russian initiatives," said the Kremlin official.
'No fundamental changes' after Biden-Putin's appeal
Meanwhile, a senior American official said on Saturday that the call between Russian and American leaders failed to lead to any major change in the stalemate between Russia and the West.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, criticized the Kiev allies for sending "modern weapons" to Ukraine, adding: "The conditions are being created for possible aggressive actions by Ukrainian security forces in the Donbas."
Russia claims that the United States is trying to provoke the conflict in Ukraine and this explains the campaign of war hysteria that has been fueled by Washington in recent weeks. Russia expects possible provocations from Ukrainian forces at the instigation of the American and British instructors present in the country.