October 21, 2016 (The New York
Times) With soldiers dying daily in Ukraine, the site of the only active war in
Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany hosted a meeting on Wednesday to
see whether President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was willing to cut a deal to
end the conflict while he also faces pressure from the West over Moscow’s role
in Syria.
Mr. Putin and Ms. Merkel met with
President François Hollande of France and President Petro O. Poroshenko of
Ukraine to talk about the fighting as the Ukraine crisis returns to the diplomatic
agenda and the leaders try to restart a cease-fire.
Separately, Mr. Putin, who is
often in the eye of the storm on international crises, met with Ms. Merkel and
Mr. Hollande to discuss the civil war in Syria, where the Russian Air Force is
backing the government.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany greeted
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as he arrived for a Ukraine summit
meeting in front of the German Federal Chancellery in Berlin on Wednesday. Fhoto
by Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/European Pressphoto Agency
At a news conference late Wednesday, Ms. Merkel
said that, as predicted, “no miracles were achieved.” But, she added,
the value of meeting face to face was clear and that “it is urgently necessary”
that high-level meetings continue as the foreign ministers of all four
countries work on a new “road map” to resolve the conflict.
Residents left a damaged building in Horlivka,
Ukraine, in August after the city was shelled. Photo by
Alexander Ermochenko/European Pressphoto Agency
From her comments after the meetings and those
by Mr. Hollande and Mr. Poroshenko, it seemed that the road map amounted a new
timetable for putting into effect the agreement reached in Minsk, Belarus, in
2015 but never fully observed.
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