Some more updates from Kyiv via RFE/RL's news desk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on the European Union to consider Ukraine's bid to join the bloc.
"I am calling on the EU to admit that Ukraine can become an EU member in the future," said Poroshenko, addressing EU leaders at a summit in Kyiv on April 27.
Poroshenko said Ukraine needs considerable EU support as it carries out necessary political and economic reforms.
Poroshenko said Ukraine will be able meet conditions to apply for EU membership within five years.
The EU-Ukraine summit is the first since their Association Agreement was signed last year after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Talks are expected to include the status of the Minsk agreement, a deal signed in February for a cease-fire and steps to end the conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people in eastern Ukraine.
Leaders were also expected to address the status of economic and political reforms in Ukraine, financial assistance to Kyiv, and Poroshenko's request for European peacekeepers to help monitor the cease-fire.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said during the talks that Ukraine wants to see "European partners and friends among shareholders" of Ukraine's gas transportation system.
(Interfax, Reuters)
Angela Merkel has been talking about Ukraine in Warsaw (courtesy of RFE/RL's news desk):
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on April 27 that international sanctions imposed on Russia should depend on whether peacekeeping commitments signed this year in Minsk are upheld.
Merkel, at a news conference with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz in Warsaw, said that, at the European Council meeting in March, the EU "took an unambiguous decision that the sanctions were related to completing the Minsk agreements."
She said "It is clear that completing this package is taking longer" and will be dealt with in June.
Kopacz said that Merkel agreed with her that the sanctions that have already been imposed on Russia should be maintained.
The main topics for discussion between Merkel and Kopacz are expected to be the conflict in Ukraine as well as preparations for the upcoming Eastern Partnership summit next month in Latvia's capital, Riga.
The Eastern Partnership brings together the European Union and the ex-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
(Reuters, dpa)