‘No miracles’ at Berlin talks on ending Ukraine conflict

BERLIN – Agence France-Presse

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “no miracles” were achieved on the Ukraine crisis on Oct. 20, but talks with the country’s leader and his Russian and French counterparts did lead to some progress on ending a deadlock in the peace process.

After a five-hour summit billed as “difficult,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said all sides had agreed to draw up a roadmap for applying the frayed 2015 Minsk peace accords following months of impasse.

“Between now and the end of November we have to approve a roadmap. It will be a document on the implementation of all the Minsk accords,” he said in a press conference after the Berlin gathering, according to Russian news agencies.

Merkel said at a separate press conference that the talks “didn’t achieve miracles” but that progress was made “with the creation of a so-called roadmap.” 

“There’s much work left to do,” she added, flanked by French President Francois Hollande.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his first visit to Berlin since the conflict erupted, stressed that the Minsk accords remained the best path towards a lasting resolution to war in eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later in the day that talks on the Ukraine crisis were “as a whole, positive,” according to Reuters. 

Speaking on a conference call with journalists, Peskov said the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine “swapped notes” and discussed further work after talks failed to make any progress last year.