Macron hailed progress after some eight hours of talks at the Elysée Palace on ending the five-year conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces.
“The fact we are here together side-by-side is something important,” Macron said, describing the conflict as an “open wound at the heart of the European continent”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also present for the first-ever bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, rekindling a four-country format that brokered a peace deal in Minsk in 2015 that failed to secure a lasting ceasefire.
The four parties issued a statement saying the Russian and Ukrainian leaders had now agreed to implement a full ceasefire and proceed with a new withdrawal of forces from conflict zones by March 2020.
Putin hailed the outcome as an “important step” towards de-escalation, but Zelensky admitted he had come away wanting more.
“It is a very good result for a first meeting, but I will be honest, it is very little, I wanted to resolve a larger number of problems,” the Ukrainian leader said after the talks in Paris.
The main shortcomings of the meeting appeared to be the failure to agree to a timetable for holding local elections in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as a lack of agreement over control of Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.
Macron said a new summit would be held in four months to take stock of progress in implementing what was agreed.
(with AFP)
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