Minsk summit a ‘glimmer of hope’

MINSK – The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France plan to meet in Minsk for what French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius has called a “last-chance negotiation” to stop the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Prospects for a breakthrough at the four-way summit in the Belarusian capital on February 11 were clouded by continued fighting and conflicting interests in a war that has killed more than 5,350 people since April and sparked the tensest standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Steffen Seibert, said the meeting “offers a glimmer of hope, but no more than that.” Mr. Seibert said it was “uncertain whether an outcome can be reached, but despite all the uncertainty, it is worth trying in the interest of the suffering people in eastern Ukraine.” The meeting is part of a diplomatic push initiated by Ms. Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, who took new proposals to Kyiv and Minsk last week in a desperate effort to find a solution to the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists. Few details of the plan or the proposed agenda for the Minsk talks have been released, but the leaders are likely to base their negotiations on an agreement for a ceasefire and steps toward peace that was signed in September 2014, also in Minsk. (RFE/RL)