Ukraine talks focus on peace deal

PARIS – The foreign affairs ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany tried on June 23 to revive high-end diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, amid escalating fighting. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov said afterwards that the four agreed to “not allow a breakdown” of a peace deal reached in February. “There is a sense that there are powers who would like to destroy this process,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters in Paris. “I won’t name them. But such forces exist. Many for different reasons prefer military, security scenarios; many do not want the situation to calm down, but to the contrary they want it to worsen. Today all four ministers firmly spoke out against such efforts.” He and German Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier complained of routine violations of a ceasefire agreed in the February deal, negotiated by Germany and France. The quartet of foreign ministers called for a quick de-escalation of hostilities to allow progress on longer-term aspects of the peace deal. Those include an array of political, security, humanitarian and economic questions such as the contentious issue of autonomy for the rebel regions. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse)