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Analysts See Pitfalls for Ukraine in Coming Peace Talks

Tatiana Vorozhko

   WASHINGTON - Ukrainian officials are warily watching the U.S.
   impeachment inquiry as they prepare for a crucial four-way negotiation
   with Russia, France and Germany next month.

   The meeting of the so-called Normandy Contact Group, set for Dec. 9 in
   Paris, is aimed at easing the conflict in the Donbas area of eastern
   Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists. More
   than 13,000 people have died in the fighting, which began in April
   2014.

   Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has outlined four issues he
   wants to raise at the meeting -- an exchange of prisoners, a ceasefire,
   a restoration of Ukraine's control over the Ukraine-Russia border, and
   holding local elections in rebel-held territories. Ukraine and the
   separatists have already withdrawn their forces at three sites in
   Donbas as a precondition for the meeting.

   Analysts contacted by Voice of America's Ukrainian Service say the
   novice leader who came to power promising to bring peace to his country
   will be hard-pressed to emerge with a deal that doesn't leave the
   nation weaker than it is now.

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