Putin Backs Ukraine Peace Pact as End-of-Year Deadline Looms
- Russian, Ukrainian, German, French Ministers Meet in Berlin
- Officials Seek Leverage After Cease-Fire Holds for Two Weeks
This article is for subscribers only.
Warring parties in eastern Ukraine should adhere to a negotiated end-of-year deadline for a fragile seven-month-old peace accord, Russian President Vladimir Putin said as officials met in Berlin to push the settlement forward.
Foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France who met Saturday said they made some progress in breathing life into a peace process signed in the Belarus capital Minsk in February, after a truce in eastern Ukraine has held for two weeks. With very few of the other elements of Minsk implemented ahead of the deadline at the end of 2015, Russia this week raised the prospect of extending the pact.