BERLIN, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A planned summit on a peace plan for Ukraine was canceled after foreign ministers failed to make progress at a Berlin meeting.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday's four-hour meeting between negotiators from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine was a "very open exchange" but failed to produce results that would aid a planned four-party summit scheduled for Thursday in Kazakhstan which was to include the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Steinmeier and Merkel have been leading the push for Ukraine, Russia and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine to honor an often-violated peace accord agreed to in Sept. 2014. The Berlin meeting ended Monday with a joint statement from Steinmeier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, calling for progress on implementing the peace deal.
A prisoner exchange, withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the front lines and a cessation of hostilities remain unfulfilled elements of the peace accord, and without their implementation, little success could be expected at a summit meeting, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said.
