(Bloomberg) --
French President Emmanuel Macron will host the leaders from Russia, Germany and Ukraine on Dec. 9, citing “major progress” in efforts to resolve tensions in Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
“The summit will take place against the backdrop of major progress since last summer in negotiations for the settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” Macron's office said in a statement on Friday. Steps “have included the disengagement of troops in several areas of tension on the line of contact,” according to the statement.
READ MORE: Ukraine Peace Talks Get Breakthrough as Kyiv Accepts Compromise
Macron, who will be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris, said there will be a renewed commitment progress.
Talks to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed fighters produced the first major breakthrough this month since a stalled 2015 peace accord.
Negotiators in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, agreed on a schedule under which elections would be held in the breakaway regions and a new law passed granting them special status. The plan known as the Steinmeier formula was proposed by Frank-Walter Steinmeier when he was Germany's foreign minister.
To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Raymond Colitt
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