For first time since start of the war in Ukraine, president Vladimir Putin will visit Berlin. Putin is set to arrive in the German capital on Wednesday as part of a summit hosted by Chancellor Merkel.
It will be Putin’s first official visit since the political crisis in Ukraine began in 2014, leading to the EU imposing sanctions against Moscow.
Steffen Seibert, spokesperson for the chancellor announced on Tuesday that Putin will meet with French president Francois Hollande and Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s leader, at Merkel’s invitation. Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitors in eastern Ukraine.
The summit will be held to “evaluate the implementation” of the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine, the French presidency said, to “discuss the next steps in the process towards ending the crisis in eastern Ukraine”.
Crimea voted in a referendum to rejoin Russia, while the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk opted for broader autonomy. Kiev responded by launching a military crackdown on the rebels. At least five rebel leaders have been killed in assassinations over the past year.
Hollande and Poroshenko met last Thursday ahead of the summit to discuss Ukraine regaining control of its borders with Russia. A peace deal brokered by Germany and France in February 2015, the so-called Minsk accords, has simmered down the conflict, but it has not stopped.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, speaking in Paris on Tuesday, stressed however there was no alternative to continuing to work on the Minsk agreement.
“I told the Ukrainians there was no plan B to the Minsk accords. Some think there is a plan B, which is confronting Russia, which we don’t want.”
“One mustn’t expect any wonders from tomorrow’s meeting,” Chancellor Merkel warned during a news conference on Tuesday.
Last week, President Hollande sparked outrage in Ukraine with references to the Minsk deal. The Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov chided Hollande and said he was in no position “to dictate to us what to do”.
While the Kremlin said the Syrian conflict would not be on Wednesday’s agenda, the meeting in Berlin comes amid a period of high tension between Russia and France, which clashed over Syria at a UN Security Council session over Moscow’s advances in the Syrian conflict.
