Moscow thinks it is senseless to discuss an exact date of the Normandy format summit just yet. This was stated by press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, - Interfax-Ukraine reports.
"There is no precise date for now, and there cannot be such. You are aware of Putin's position: preparations must be made before the summit. It is impossible to carry out preparations as of yet because of the constantly changing position of one of the sides", - Peskov noted.
President's press secretary answered affirmatively to the question of whether the Kremlin believed there was an impasse in the Normandy format: "The Normandy format has been struggling indeed".
Peskov recalled that "the Normandy format had agreed on a certain set of agreements at one time, but one of the format's parties, he said, allowed deviations from this set of agreements, thereby making it difficult to prepare for a possible and much-needed next summit".
"Whenever a party claims the existence of new approaches, the Normandy format experiences certain problems with due preparations for the summit. This process consumes precious time", - the Kremlin's representative said.
As previously reported, Russia does not comply with the main provisions of the protocol signed in Minsk on September 5, 2014. In particular, the Minsk Protocol provides for an immediate bilateral cessation of the use of weapons, permanent monitoring on the Ukrainian-Russian state border and verification by the OSCE with the creation of security zone in the border regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, removal of illegal armed formations, military equipment, as well as militants and mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine. Instead, Russia supports the occupation authorities of Donbass with weapons, ammunition, military equipment and personnel on a permanent basis. Russia also categorically opposes monitoring of Ukraine's uncontrolled section of the state border through which columns of military equipment regularly come to occupied Donbass and through which Ukrainian coal, products of Ukrainian metallurgical plants and so on are being exported from CADLO.