MINSK, August 26 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hopes that the results of Tuesday’s meetings in Minsk will lead to an agreement that could bring peace to Ukraine.
“I honestly hope that the results of today’s meeting, which I hope will not be the last, is only the first meeting that will enable us to reach an agreement that will bring peace to Ukraine,” Poroshenko said during a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
On Tuesday, Minsk is hosting a high-level meeting between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and the European Union representatives.
According to President Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, the meeting is expected to address a number of urgent political and economic issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, humanitarian aid to the country’s eastern regions, the flow of refugees to Russia, and the possibility of an internal dialogue between Kiev and eastern Ukraine.
A meeting between the Ukrainian President Poroshenko and the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has already started.
Later on Tuesday, Poroshenko is expected to hold other bilateral meetings with the leaders in order to discuss the most acute problems in Ukraine.
“Everyone expects that the Minsk meeting will allow the exchange of opinions on the extent that efforts are on in settling the political process with the goal of settling the crisis in Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed the importance of a comprehensive dialogue in order to achieve long-term peace in neighboring Ukraine, and expressed its readiness to participate in consultations.
