Ukraine's Foreign Ministry comments on "secret" meeting of former Russian and German officials

Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has commented on a "secret" meeting of former senior German and Russian officials in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Source: Tykhyi in comments to journalists, European Pravda

Details: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated the day before that his country's territory "was used to hold a meeting without our knowledge".

Commenting on the event, the spokesperson said the meeting was "as secret as it is unimportant".

"Some people whose names can barely be googled anymore met and talked about something. The Ukrainian side has not authorised any of them for anything. The significance of such meetings for a real peace process is close to zero," Tykhyi stressed.

It was previously reported that the unofficial German delegation included Ronald Pofalla, former chief of staff to Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Matthias Platzeck, former head of the state of Brandenburg.

The Russian side was represented by Valery Fadeyev, Chairman of the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, and Viktor Zubkov, former deputy prime minister under Putin who now heads the board of the state energy conglomerate Gazprom.

Background:

• At the beginning of July, US President Donald Trump publicly sided with Ukraine regarding the venue for peace talks with Russia.
• Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence and Space, recently warned against the normalisation of relations with the Kremlin leader in the context of a potential peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia.

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