MOSCOW • A summit involving France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine to try to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine is possible this year, but no date has been agreed, said a Kremlin aide yesterday.

France said last Friday that the so-called Normandy summit will take place in Paris on Dec 9, but Moscow has not confirmed either the plans or the date.

"I think there will be a chance to organise (the summit) this year. I can't say the exact date because it is still under discussion," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told a news show on local television Russia-1.

If it happens, the Normandy summit, named after a meeting in the north-western French region of the leaders of the four countries in 2014, will take place following a thaw in relations between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow and Kiev exchanged prisoners in September and this month Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels began withdrawing from a village in the disputed Donbass region.

The summit plans are not directly tied to legislation giving Donbass a special status, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during the same news show.

Meanwhile, Russia began moving three captured Ukrainian navy ships yesterday, after a Russian newspaper said Moscow would return them to Ukraine ahead of the summit. Russia seized the ships off the coast of Crimea last November after opening fire on them.

REUTERS