Zelenskyy Expects Prisoner-Exchange Date And End Of Donbas Occupation To Be Agreed At Normandy Format Meeting

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expects that it will be possible to reach agreement on specific dates for exchange of all prisoners and ending the occupation of the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions at the upcoming meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Format countries (Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France).

Zelenskyy announced this at a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis in Kyiv, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"I would like concrete results. We can talk a lot about ending the war in Donbas and returning our territories every day. However, you cannot just talk about it; you need to come to an agreement. I am talking about specific a period, at least. I want to talk about ending the occupation of Donbas within a period that is more or less clear," he said.

Zelenskyy stressed that he would raise this issue at the meeting.

"Secondly, there should also be more specifics when we are talking about exchanging everyone for everyone. We want to bring all our people home. If everyone, then I also want to talk about when. For me, the answer is a specific date in the near future," he added.
The President also stated the need to discuss the possibility of holding local elections in Donbas after illegal armed groups are withdrawn from the territory.

“Therefore, it seems to me that what will happen there later – dry of not – is not important, but specific things are important,” he said when asked whether a document would be signed after the meeting and whether the reports claiming that such a document would be short and "dry" were true.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Format countries will be held in Paris (France) on December 6.