Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, who is also the first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group, said that at negotiations of political advisers to the leaders of the Normandy format countries there was a certain rapprochement of positions, but the Russian delegation was not ready to subscribe to the elaborated formulations from Ukraine, Germany and France and took time to prepare its proposals.

"The discussion went on for eleven hours, including on wording, interpretations, on a word, on a comma, on a dash, etc. But the main idea and goal was for all four political advisers to be ready to sign a specific set of recommendations for the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG). And at that moment the rapprochement of positions took place, I am a witness to this. But there was no willingness of the Russian to subscribe to the statements proposed by German and French sides," he said on air of the Svoboda Slova (Freedom of Speech) program on ICTV on Monday, July 6, in the evening.

Reznikov noted the constructive and "pro-Ukrainian" position of Jan Haecker and Emmanuel Bonn, the foreign policy advisers to the German Chancellor and the French President.

"As a result, the positions on the statements of Ukraine, France and Germany converged, but Russia asked for time to work on another project and express its proposals. Therefore, no agreements were reached - it's true, but a real rapprochement took place," he said.

As reported, following a meeting of the advisers to the leaders of the Normandy format countries on July 3 in Berlin, the Office of the President of Ukraine announced that Ukraine, Germany and France had shown their readiness to do their best to fulfill the Paris agreements of the leaders of the Normandy format of December 2019, while Russia took a break to prepare an answer to this consolidated position of the three countries.

The meeting of political advisers to the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia was attended by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov, who led the Ukrainian delegation.