Ukraine preparing roadmap for conflict in east: President Zelenskiy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says his government is preparing a roadmap with clear deadlines to be discussed with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France for implementing a peace deal in eastern Ukraine.

Speaking at a press conference with the visiting president of Finland Sauli Niinistö, Zelenskiy said on Thursday that he hoped the new roadmap would be discussed at a meeting in the so-called “Normandy” format “in the nearest future.”

He said that “we are elaborating a roadmap for the implementation of the Minsk agreements with clear deadlines. This is the most important thing to me.”

“I believe that we will be able to resolve a lot of crucial and complicated indeed aspects of the Minsk agreement at this meeting,” Zelenskiy added.

“As I told you, ending the war and returning of all our prisoners are a priority tasks for me as the President of Ukraine,” he said.

The mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine have been the scene of five years of conflict, which has so far killed more than 13,000 people.

The armed confrontations began when a wave of protests in Ukraine overthrew a democratically-elected pro-Russia government and replaced it with a pro-West administration. The majority in those areas refused to endorse the new administration.

Kiev, and its Western allies, accuse Moscow of having a hand in the crisis. Moscow, however, denies the allegations.

Relations between Moscow and Kiev further deteriorated when the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum in 2014

Later in 2015, the two sides signed a ceasefire deal in the Belarus capital Minsk with French and German support, but both parties have on numerous occasions accused each other of violating the ceasefire.

Since taking office, the new president of Ukraine started exploring the possibility of talks with his Russian counterpart to resolve the conflict.

Last weekend the two sides exchanged 70 prisoners in a landmark deal that is expected to pave the way for serious negotiations between the two sides.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said after the prisoner exchange that the move would be "a good step forward towards the normalization (of relations)" with Kiev.

Zelensky also said on Saturday that all steps must be taken “to finish this horrible war.”

Experts are skeptical, however. Otilia Dhand, senior vice president at Teneo Intelligence — a global consulting and advisory firm— said that there are major barriers to peace in place between the two sides.

She explained that “the political conditions of the cease-fire agreement require constitutional reform in Ukraine prior to the restoration of Kiev’s territorial control.”

“Separatists would likely demand decision-making powers in foreign policy to prevent any possibility of Ukraine’s westward economic and security integration, which remains unacceptable for Kiev,” she added.