⁍ Russia has proposed to ditch technical talks on Ukraine regarding the level of political advisors in the so-called Normandy format.

---

⁍ The Ukraine government confirmed that it had received a letter from senior Kremlin official Dmitry Kozak proposing scrapping the talks in their current form.

---

⁍ Russia wants to end the technical talks between the foreign ministers and heads of states of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in the Normandy format.

---

– Relations between Russia and Ukraine appear to be slowly returning to normal, with a ceasefire taking hold last week and prisoner swaps taking place. Now, however, Russia is threatening to pull out of long-stalled diplomatic talks over the conflict in Ukraine, Reuters reports. “The format of advisors is ineffective,” a source in Moscow says of the so-called Normandy format talks between Russian, Ukraine, France, and Germany that began in 2014. “There is little meaning in it,” the source says. “Mr. Kozak’s letter, in my opinion, is more about a subtle diplomatic game, when one of the parties to the talks wants to strengthen its position and seize the initiative,” says Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko’s chief of staff. “However, it is clear that there is no point in talking about the termination of negotiations. The work is still ongoing.”