On Ukraine, they discussed how to accelerate the full implementation of Minsk commitments, including the urgent need to restore the ceasefire and allow full OSCE access.
Ukrainian ambassador rejects Polish premier's "million refugees" claim
WARSAW, Jan 20 (Reuters) -- Ukraine's ambassador to Poland on Wednesday rejected the Polish prime minister's claim that her country hosts a million Ukrainian refugees, saying they were not refugees and could at most be called "economic migrants".
Poland's ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party has repeatedly said it should not be forced to accept refugees from Syria and North Africa as it already faces a potential influx of refugees from neighbouring Ukraine.
In a European Parliament debate on Tuesday on the rule of law in Poland, prompted by Warsaw's new legislation on the constitutional court and state media, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo appeared to take this argument a step further.
"You're talking about migrants - that is a serious issue," Szydlo said. "Poland has accepted around a million refugees from Ukraine, people whom nobody wanted to help. This should also be discussed."
Government data, however, shows that despite a jump in the number of Ukrainians trying to settle in Poland since the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine, Poland hosts a mere three Ukrainian refugees and has granted some protections to around 200 more. Another 65,000 Ukrainians hold residency permits in Poland.
Ukraine's ambassador to Poland, Andriy Deshchytsia, said on Wednesday that while it was possible a million Ukrainians entered Poland in any given year, they were not refugees.
"Taking into account the number of visas in previous years, and the dynamics of the near-border movement, I suspect that over the course of a year there could be up to a million Ukrainians on Polish territory," Deshchytsia told state agency PAP.
"But they are not refugees. They should be called economic migrants."
Warsaw's previous government came in for criticism from the then opposition PiS party when it broke ranks with Hungary and other eastern European nations by agreeing to take in about 7,000 refugees following a European Union directive for up to 120,000 migrants to be relocated across the bloc.
After the party's election victory, its incoming European affairs minister said the November attacks in Paris that killed 130 people meant there were no "political possibilities" for carrying out the relocation plan.
This month, however, the foreign minister said Poland would stick to the previous government's plan although it regards it as legally flawed.
Ukraine toughens position in negotiations to end conflict
MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- Ukraine is hardening its position in negotiations to end the conflict in the country's east, saying it must regain control of its entire border with Russia before elections can be held in the regions controlled by Russia-backed rebels.
The agreement worked out last year by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany says Ukraine would regain control of the border the day after such elections were held.
But after a meeting Wednesday with the so-called Contact Group trying to implement the pact, Ukraine's representative — former president Leonid Kuchma — said elections were impossible without border control, his spokeswoman Darka Olifer said in a statement on Facebook.
This ends our live blogging for January 20. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.
Ukraine plans new diplomatic push to recover Crimea, finance minister tells Reuters:
DAVOS, Switzerland Jan 20 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans soon to launch a fresh diplomatic initiative to recover the Crimean peninsula from Russia which annexed it in 2014, Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko told Reuters on Wednesday.
"We don't agree that Crimea has gone. This will be the year we really begin pressing forward on a process to return Crimea," Yaresko said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Russia seized the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014 in a military operation denounced by the West, which imposed retaliatory sanctions to punish Moscow that remain in place.
More recently Ukraine cut power supplies to the region and its president, Petro Poroshenko, said power would be restored if Crimea were recognised as part of Ukraine.
However, Russia has given no sign that it would ever consider returning Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population and holds a special place in Russian history and culture. Last month Moscow issued a new banknote dedicated to Crimea.
Yaresko said Ukraine aimed to create a forum along the lines of the so-called Geneva format, a body that included Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States and operated briefly in 2014. Russia has ruled out reviving the forum.
"We are looking to establish something bigger than the Geneva format to begin dialogue on how to return Crimea to Ukraine," Yaresko said.
Some legal experts believe Ukraine can successfully use Crimea's annexation as a lever against Russia if Moscow carries out its threat to take Kiev to a British court over non-payment of a $3 billion debt
Yaresko declined to comment on that possibility.