Five years of Normandy Four meeting in Independence Palace

Five years ago, the negotiations marathon of the so-called Normandy Four took place in the Independence Palace. While the events in Donbas have reached a real boiling point, it was Minsk that became the place that united efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France gathered at the Belarusian negotiating table. As the participants later recalled, it was a truly unique work format. Of course, the attention of all the world's major media was drawn to such an event. Journalists have literally occupied the Independence Palace and its surroundings. 

Many people have already written books and memoirs about the organization of this marathon of world diplomacy, including its main participants. Those talks were a real chance to stop the armed conflict that had erupted on the European continent for the first time since the Balkan events. Each of the participants has its own peace plan, but the goal is the same: ceasefire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone in Donbass, where more than 40,000 people were killed.