:-)
Nice tweebate among friends:
Germany's foreign minister doesn't think de-escalation is coming to Ukraine anytime soon:
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said there are no signs fighting in Ukraine will end anytime soon.
Steinmeier spoke during a November 19 press conference in Berlin, a day after he visited Kyiv and Moscow in an effort to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has left more than 4,000 people dead since March.
Steinmeier said, "Unfortunately, we are very, very far from a sustainable de-escalation of the conflict and even further from a political solution."
Steinmeier met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kyiv and with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to try to gather support for implementing the so-called Minsk protocol.
Steinmeier added, "What the Minsk protocol says for conditions on the ground and what changes are necessary within eastern Ukraine -- the creation of transparency, controls, and the establishment of borders -- must be worked on." (Reuters)
This ends our live-blogging for November 19. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.