Paris talks on Ukraine yield no results

The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine have failed to reach an agreement on resolving the ongoing crisis in east Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin along with French and German foreign ministers in the French capital, Paris, on Thursday to discuss the Ukrainian conflict.

The meeting was “very difficult,” according to Klimkin, who accused Lavrov of not being “ready to discuss some issues in detail.”

While Lavrov made no remarks to reporters after the meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed dissatisfaction with the results.

“I am not satisfied by the way in which Kiev and Moscow have been leading these negotiations,” said Steinmeier.

“We will say very clearly... we must really advance, first in consolidating the ceasefire and secondly in restarting the political process,” he added.

Last month, Steinmeier and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault visited Ukraine and called on the government in Kiev to implement the necessary measures for the holding of local elections in eastern Ukraine.

Ayrault said during the Thursday meeting, “We underlined the importance of adopting an electoral law to hold local elections by the end of the first half of 2016.”

Kiev, has long insisted that a total cessation of hostilities in the country’s restive east is a prerequisite for allowing the polls.

“We must be able to ensure these elections are organized safely, we need our territory to be secure,” the Ukrainian foreign minister said on Thursday.

Donetsk and Luhansk, the two mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine, have been the site of deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April 2014 to crush pro-Russia protests there.

During peace talks in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in February 2015, with French and German mediation and in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a truce accord was signed and officially went into effect on February 15.

The accord, however, has so far failed to put a full end to a 23-month conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 9,000 people in east Ukraine.

Kiev and its Western allies claim Moscow is orchestrating the crisis by supporting Ukraine’s pro-Russia forces.

Russia, however, denies the allegations and says the United States triggered the street protests that toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russia president in February 2014 and led to the current conflict in east Ukraine.

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