Meanwhile in Moscow... (from RFE/RL's news desk):
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he plans to meet with his counterparts from Ukraine, Germany, and France on April 13 to discuss the implementation of a deal meant to end the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Russian news agencies reported on April 9 that the meeting will take place in Berlin.
Talks in Minsk between the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia produced a February 12 agreement on a cease-fire and steps aimed to resolve disputes between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists who control parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.
Fighting between the rebels and government forces has killed more than 6,000 people since April 2014, many of them civilians.
Fighting has decreased markedly since the cease-fire took effect, but each side accuses the other of frequent violations.
Disagreements over political aspects of the Minsk accord, such as elections, have undermined the chances of ending the conflict.
(TASS, Interfax)
The Polish president is in Kyiv at the moment. Our news desk has issued this brief report of his visit:
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has voiced strong support for Ukraine during a speech in the parliament in Kyiv, and urged other nations to back the country as its struggles against Russian interference.
Addressing the Verkhovna Rada on April 9, Komorowski said that Poland has "stretched out its hand to Ukraine and is doing everything -- and will do everything -- so that other states and peoples of the free Western world stretch their hands out to Ukraine as well."
"Poland's stretched hand is not just an indication of the current political trend but our understanding of the historic processes turning Ukraine to an equal and extremely important partner and neighbor," he said.
Komorowski added that "it is not about the past, it is about the future of the Ukrainian-Polish ties."
Komorowski was on a two-day visit and met with President Petro Poroshenko on April 8.
(UNIAN and pravda.com.ua)