WARSAW, Poland — When new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sits down Monday for peace talks in Paris with Russian President Vladimir Putin in their first face-to-face meeting, the stakes couldn't be higher. More than five years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between government troops and Moscow-backed separatists has killed more than 14,000 people, and a cease-fire has remained elusive. So there are concerns among those who support Ukraine's sovereignty that Zelenskiy might end up giving too many concessions to Putin. That could lead to a backlash from Ukrainians who strongly oppose any rapprochement with Russia. The talks are being organized in the so-called Normandy Format, which was launched soon after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its backing of the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Source: International New York Times December 08, 2019 10:52 UTC