Russian and Ukrainian Officials Meet in Germany

Alison Smale, New York Times

12 January 2015

BERLIN — The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met here on Monday with their German and French counterparts in the latest attempt to ease the crisis in eastern Ukraine, where some 4,700 people have been killed since the conflict erupted last spring.

Sounding weary but determined to pursue any chance of a diplomatic solution, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said he had invited his colleagues for more talks because “it would be wrong not to undertake this attempt at the beginning of a new year.”

But he noted soberly that the situation in Ukraine remains “extremely tense,” with acute humanitarian needs, people continuing to die and still “no way out.”

Some four hours after talks began, Mr. Steinmeier announced that there would be more meetings at a lower level with a view to the foreign ministers gathering again next week. Only then, he indicated, would it be possible to contemplate a summit of top leaders from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, who could move the peace process significantly forward.

President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine announced optimistically in late December that he would meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France on Thursday in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

But Ms. Merkel dampened expectations for the meeting last week, and neither she nor Mr. Hollande will travel to Astana without concrete indications that the impasse between Russia and Ukraine can be overcome.

The deadlock concerns a 12-point accord that was reached in Minsk last September, calling for a truce and other steps toward peace. Ms. Merkel said last Thursday that the agreement must be carried out in full. While the shaky cease-fire has slowed the killing in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine, the violence has not stopped, officials in Berlin noted, and the Russian and Ukrainian sides have yet to agree on demarcation lines, humanitarian aid deliveries or the removal of Russian fighters and weapons.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under Foreign Ministry rules, said that both Ukraine and Russia had raised new obstacles in recent days, revolving around whether Ukrainian officials would meet directly with representatives of the separatists. Those new obstacles, the officials said, had dimmed hopes for a breakthrough that might allow the Astana summit meeting to occur soon.

Adding another complication, Interpol said on Monday that it had placed the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine, Viktor F. Yanukovych, on an international list of wanted fugitives, issuing what is known as a red notice. Mr. Yanukovych was driven from power by street protests and fled to Russia in February 2014. The current government of Ukraine wants to try Mr. Yanukovych and several of his former subordinates on embezzlement and other charges, but Russia is thought to be very unlikely to hand him over.

Fighting between pro-Russian separatist rebels and government forces erupted in eastern Ukraine last spring, after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk issued declarations of independence from Ukraine.

Featured Image: The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, left, looks to his counterpart from Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, right, during a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Foreign Minister of France, Laurent Fabius, in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Jan. 12, 2015. Copyright: AP Photo/Michael Sohn, pool

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