On October 19, in Berlin, there was held a meeting of Norman Quartet participants - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Negotiations between the politicians started Wednesday night and lasted five hours.
The Norman Quartet meeting, in addition to the heads of states, was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Putin aide Vladimir Surkov, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, and deputy head of the presidential administration Konstantin Eliseev. The representatives of Russia and Ukraine were sitting on the opposite sides of the table. It is known that the Russian president and the head of Ukraine did not shake hands.
Vladimir Putin was the last one who arrived for talks. Prior to his arrival, Poroshenko had time to talk with Merkel and Hollande.
Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande met with reporters after talks and shared information with them on the outcome of the meeting.
Merkel and Putin's greeting was very warm - the politicians smiled at each other and shook hands.
Poroshenko was the first one at the meeting. The next one in the office of the Federal Chancellor was the head of France.
It is noted that the summit did not solve global issues. The most important conclusion of the evening, according to Merkel, was an agreement on the establishment of the road map.
In the photo: Vladimir Putin before the meeting.
The main topic of the talks was the situation in the Donbass. The politicians tried to figure out how to resolve it correctly. The second major theme of the Norman Quartet meeting was the Syrian issue.
In the photo: Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel before the meeting of the Norman Quartet.