First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Iryna Gerashchenko, has announced the meeting in the Normandy format (Ukraine, France, Germany, Russia) at the level of political advisers in August to discuss the preparation of the leaders' negotiations.

"Now we are talking about the personal meeting in August of the political advisors to the presidents," she said in an interview with Channel 5 on Wednesday.

According to Gerashchenko, the key aspects of the negotiations will be the implementation of the agreements reached by the leaders of the Normandy Four in the framework of the recent telephone conversation, in particular, the stabilization of the security situation, but also the possibility of holding a meeting at the level of the presidents.

"I do not exclude that the Kremlin's game involves Germany starting election campaign scheduled for September, and the Russian Federation may try to block these personal meetings [...] It seems to me that Russia tried to put on hold the Normandy format, given elections in France, elections in Germany, as it was necessary to answer very unpleasant questions there about the security situation, about the involvement of the Russian army and weapons in this conflict," she said.

Gerashchenko also said that the leaders' meeting in the Normandy format would take place sooner or later, but the sooner the better." According to her, it is also very important to achieve concrete results at the meeting.