Four-party talks to be held in Minsk to end Ukraine crisis

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France are scheduled to hold talks in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in a bid to find a way to end deadly clashes in eastern Ukraine.

According to reports on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande agreed in a phone call to hold a summit in Minsk to revive an earlier deal inked between the sides involved in the Ukrainian crisis.

Back in September 2014, representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk signed a ceasefire deal in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The truce has been violated on an almost daily basis by both the Ukrainian military and pro-Russia forces.

The four-party talks are set to be held on Wednesday, the reports said.

"They (the leaders) expect that their efforts during the Minsk meeting will lead to the swift and unconditional cessation of fire by both sides," read the statement issued by the Ukrainian presidential office.

Russia’s conditional response

The Russian president, however, said he will participate in the upcoming Minsk negotiations only if certain conditions are met.

"We will be aiming for Wednesday, if by that time we are able to agree on a number of the positions that we recently have been discussing intensely," Putin said during a meeting with the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the Russian city of Sochi on Sunday.

Source of conflict

Kiev-Moscow relations have been extremely tense in recent months. Ukraine and its Western allies accuse the Kremlin of supporting pro-Russia forces in east Ukraine, saying Russia’s military presence in Ukraine poses a security threat to all other neighboring states. Russia categorically denies the allegations.

The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev’s military operation started in April 2014 in a bid to crush the pro-Russians.

Violence intensified in May 2014 after the two flashpoint regions held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation.

The fighting has left more than 5,300 people dead, 12,200 wounded and 1.5 million displaced, the United Nations says.

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