Our news desk has just issued this short item on Poreshenko's discouraging remarks in Minsk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says there is "no good news" so far at the marathon Minsk peace talks aimed at ending the fighting in eastern Ukraine and that the Russian position at the summit is "unacceptable."
Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande have spent some 14 hours discussing ways to resolve deadly fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko made his comments during a break in the talks, held at Belarus's presidential palace.
He said there are "conditions that I consider unacceptable," though he declined to give details, and added: "the [negotiation] process is ongoing" and "there is always hope."
Poroshenko said the situation is "difficult" but said that Merkel and Hollande are "helping us a lot."
More than 5,350 people have been killed since April in fighting between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
(AFP, RIA, TASS, Reuters)
!!! BREAKING !!!
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told journalists during a break at peace talks in Minsk that there is "no good news" so far and that the Russian position in the talks is unacceptable.
Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande have spent some 14 hours discussing ways to resolve deadly fighting in eastern Ukraine.
(RIA, Reuters, Interfax)
A deal close?
From our newsroom:
A tense summit in Minsk between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France dragged on through the night and into the morning of February 12 as they wrangled over a plan to end 10 months of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The meeting in the Belarusian capital is being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande.
By 0800 local time (0600 Prague time) the talks held at the opulent presidential palace in Minsk had gone beyond the 12-hour mark.
Reuters quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying the four leaders will sign a document on solving the conflict. The source would not provide details of the nature of the document.