BREAKING: Obama calls Putin to discuss violence, Russian actions in Ukraine.
-- AFP, nscpress
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaking at a news conference in Berlin today about the Ukrainian crisis summit of German, French, Russian, and Ukrainian leaders planned for February 11 in Minsk:
"Preliminary results show that the discussions, so far, have made sense, but many open questions remain, which must be resolved before the start of the summit in Minsk."
"All involved should know that tomorrow we have another huge chance to take a big first step towards de-escalation, hopefully towards a cease-fire. But let me underline again -- nothing has been resolved yet. The fact of the summit alone is no a guarantee of its success. Therefore, I urge and expect Moscow and Kyiv to take it seriously and to really seize this chance in the face of an imminent military conflict."
"I hope that no one of those involved in the fighting will take [the conflict] to a point where an explosion of violence over the last hours would hamper the summit in Minsk. We definitely want to do all that is in our power to find political solutions. At the moment only political solutions can be a sustainable mitigation of the conflict and, hopefully, a cease-fire. That is the requirement to actually give peace in this region a perspective."