As the date of December 9 approaches, the anxiety in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora grows. Why? Because on that date, the Normandy format talks aimed at achieving peace in eastern Ukraine will take place in Paris. The talks will bring together Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France for the first time since October 2016. It will also be the first time neophyte politician Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the comedian elected this past April as Ukraine’s president, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB intelligence officer who’s been in power since 2000.
Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and a member of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s Friends of Ukraine Network, points out on justsecurity.org: “All four Normandy leaders want to show progress towards ending this tragedy, …though each for his or her own particular reasons.” Mr. Zelenskyy, readers will recall, ran on the pledge to end the war. France and Germany are interested in “normalizing” relations with Russia for the sake of business and trade; they just want the Ukraine problem to go away. Russia has no real interest in peace; the goal is to continue destabilizing Ukraine, to hinder its progress in all ways possible and to prevent its integration with the West.