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Ukraine Peace Talks Get Breakthrough as Kyiv Accepts Compromise

  • Negotiators in Minsk agree on so-called Steinmeier formula
  • Kremlin-backed war in east Ukraine followed Crimea annexation
Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sept. 30. 

Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sept. 30. 

Photographer: Evgeniy Maloletka/Bloomberg
Updated on

Talks to end the five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine produced the first major breakthrough since a lapsed 2015 peace accord, paving the way for an international summit to cement progress.

Negotiators meeting Tuesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk agreed on a schedule under which elections will be held in the breakaway regions and a new law will be passed granting them special status. The plan was proposed by Frank-Walter Steinmeier when he was Germany’s foreign minister and is known as the Steinmeier formula.