Putin, Macron and Merkel want to discuss Ukraine, but fail

Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to discuss the crisis in Donbass without the participation of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

According to Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the video conference between Putin, Macron and Merkel was not supposed to be part of the Normandy Quartet, and the crisis in the east of Ukraine was going to be only one of the topics that the three leaders were going to discuss.

Commenting on the crisis in southeastern Ukraine, Peskov said that there was a threat of a "dangerous military scenario."

However, on Monday, March 29, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert announced that the videoconference between Putin, Macron and Merkel failed to take place.

"I was previously asked about the videoconference with the participation of the Chancellor, the French and the Russian presidents. I can only tell you that this event did not take place today. I have no further details for you," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin.

Putin and Merkel had their telephone conversation in early January. They discussed cooperation in the struggle against the coronavirus pandemic. During the conversation, the parties also touched upon a number of issues related to the crisis in Ukraine.