Ukraine meeting in Berlin ends without significant progress

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Ukraine meeting in Berlin ends without significant progress
By DAVID RISING

BERLIN (AP) — The foreign ministers of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France were unable to make enough progress in closed-door meetings Monday on the Ukrainian crisis to move ahead with a higher-level summit.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said their four-hour meeting was a "very open exchange" but did not produce the results needed for the countries to go ahead with a meeting of their leaders in Kazakhstan that had been proposed for Thursday.

He said representatives from their ministries would meet instead in the coming days to see if they could bridge differences, and raised the possibility that the foreign ministers could meet again after that.

"If there is progress made at that level in the coming days, then we are prepared to meet again next week and resume this discussion we began today," he told reporters.

Steinmeier called the Berlin meeting following a flurry of diplomacy, including a brief weekend encounter in Paris between the German, French and Ukrainian leaders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and met the president of Kazakhstan, the possible host of a four-way summit on Ukraine.

Merkel and Steinmeier are pushing for progress on implementing a much-violated Ukraine peace deal drawn up in September. But Berlin says a substantial narrowing of differences between Ukraine and Russia is needed for a summit to take place.

Following the Steinmeier's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the four issued a joint statement calling for the contact group of Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE to meet to try and make progress on implementing the September peace deal.

They said this must include "the creation of the relevant conditions for an effective cease-fire, an agreement on modalities for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and the continuation of the release of detainees."

If this is done, it would "pave the way to the preparation of a successful summit meeting" in Kazakhstan, they wrote.

As it stands, the two sides have remained wide apart. Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels have failed to agree on a front line and fighting in eastern Ukraine has escalated in recent days.

Ahead of the Berlin meetings, Lavrov sternly warned Ukraine against trying to crush the pro-Russian rebellion by force. He said Russia expects the West to use its influence with Kiev to discourage it from launching another offensive, adding that it "will be a catastrophe."

The separatist leader in the city of Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko, told local television Monday that Ukraine has been violating a truce agreement.

Since last week, heavy artillery has been booming around Donetsk. Zakharchenko said artillery attacks by Ukrainian forces indicated Kiev is unilaterally backing away from the peace process.

"If we understand that things cannot be settled peacefully, we will have to solve through force instead," he said.

Ukraine denies violating the cease-fire and accused the separatists of mounting sustained artillery attacks across the front line — 63 on Sunday alone.

The rebellion flared in Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking east following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March. More than 4,700 people have died in the fighting, the U.N. says.
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Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Peter Leonard in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-13

[rickirs]

Maybe Putin should try to make a pass at Merkel, charm her with his wit and god-like physique. After all the Germans and Russians have had a long history of diplomatic relations - surely Merkel will be spellbound. Somehow though I think that Merkel would be prepared to sacrafice Ukraine if necessary to check the resurgence of Russia's Cold War imperialism. Safeguarding West Germany through the Cold War was of USA's best foreign security investments.

[hard124get]

All that is required for peace is for Kiev forces to stop shelling civilians. Merkel knows the truth, but is stuck in the middle. She speaks Russian. Putin speaks German. Germany has quite rightly banned fracking, they need Russian gas. She has to appease the USA, but the tide is turning.

[istinspring]

All that is required for peace is for Kiev forces to stop shelling civilians. Merkel knows the truth, but is stuck in the middle. She speaks Russian. Putin speaks German. Germany has quite rightly banned fracking, they need Russian gas. She has to appease the USA, but the tide is turning.

exactly. People who can into the language(s) and have friends or relatives in region knew about consequences and what's going on right now. I fairly doubt that Merkel with hordes of advisers is same ignorant/dumb as average "media sapiens". But, she's doing what she's doing... by intent while people dying in a way more large scale than in recent Paris tragedy, with difference - no one care about donetsk/lugansk:

Unguided Grad rockets launched apparently by Ukrainian government forces and pro-government militias have killed at least 16 civilians and wounded many more in insurgent-controlled areas of Donetsk and its suburbs in at least four attacks between July 12 and 21, 2014, Human Rights Watch said today.

(Berlin) – Ukrainian government forces used cluster munitions in populated areas in Donetsk city in early October 2014, Human Rights Watch said today. The use of cluster munitions in populated areas violates the laws of war due to the indiscriminate nature of the weapon and may amount to war crimes.

If EU was really "concerned", all conflict could end in few weeks, Kiev now is absolutely dependent from external loans.

Edited January 13, 2015 by istinspring