Merkel plays down prospects for 4-way meeting on Ukraine

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “no wonders” should be expected at talks on a stalled peace plan for eastern Ukraine which she will host on Wednesday with the leaders of Russia, France and Ukraine.
Other top officials, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, also dampened expectations of any breakthrough at the talks in Berlin on ending a conflict in which more than 9,600 people have been killed since 2014.
“One musn’t expect any wonders from tomorrow’s meeting but it is worth every endeavour on this issue to take efforts forward,” Merkel told a news conference on Tuesday.
Merkel said she and French President Francois Hollande would also discuss what she called the worsening humanitarian disaster in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the meeting on Ukraine would aim to establish a timetable for elections in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and discuss further military disengagement along the line of conflict.
Poroshenko, speaking in Oslo, cautioned against setting “very high expectations” for the meeting. The Kremlin has criticized Ukraine for not respecting its obligations under the Minsk cease-fire deal. A cease-fire agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk in February 2015 stemmed heavy fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels, but violence routinely flares along a demarcation line.
“Am I very optimistic? Yes. I am very optimistic about the future of Ukraine but unfortunately not so much about tomorrow’s meeting, but I would be very happy to be surprised,” Poroshenko said.
Ayrault, speaking in Paris, said there was no alternative to continuing to work on the Minsk agreement.
“I told the Ukrainians there was no plan B to the Minsk accords. Some think there is a plan B, which is confronting Russia, which we don’t want.”
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it made sense to “compare notes” about implementation of the Minsk accord, but it was not possible to talk about any concrete agreements.
“Indeed, the security situation along the demarcation line leaves a lot to be desired, provocations are ongoing,” Peskov said. “Of course, all this does not promote the process of achieving the implementation of the Minsk agreements.”

Source: Arab News