Russia, Germany, France, Ukraine to Work Out Ceasefire ‘Roadmap’ in Berlin

RIANovosti

BERLIN, August 17 (RIA Novosti) – The foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine will meet on Sunday in Berlin to develop a “roadmap” for a ceasefire in the east of Ukraine, says German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“First of all, we are talking about a roadmap and a framework for effective border control. It is only by following this path that eastern Ukraine can come to a settlement, and Kiev can continue the national dialogue and properly engage people from the east in it,” according to the minister’s statement, obtained by RIA Novosti. Steinmeier said he believed there was no simple solution.

“That’s why, in my opinion, it is so important that at this point we all sit down at the negotiating table,” the minister said.

The humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine is very serious, and it is necessary to help people, while keeping in mind the need to find a political way out of the crisis, he said.

“At the moment, we urgently need new political impetus, otherwise there is a risk to start going backwards again, to get into a bitter spiral of escalation,” Steinmeier said.

The ministerial meeting on Sunday will allow discussing the impetuses and find a way to get on the course of political settlement again.

This is the second time the four countries will hold negotiations on the situation in Ukraine in this format. On July 2, Sergei Lavrov, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius and Pavlo Klimkin met in Berlin. Following the results of the two-hour negotiations, the four came up with a joint declaration strongly reconfirming their commitment to sustainable peace and stability in Ukraine.