Reuters: Four-way Summit Due

Ukraine’s announcement was certain to ratchet up tension between Kiev and Moscow on the eve of a planned meeting in Berlin of four foreign ministers that should bring Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin face to face with Russia’s Sergei Lavrov.
Wednesday’s meeting, which also brings in the German and French foreign ministers, has been called to give fresh impetus to stalled efforts to end the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
The crisis started with the popular overthrow of a Moscow-backed president by street protests in Kiev a year ago.
Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and threw its weight behind a pro-Russian separatist rebellion, leading to a conflict in which more than 4,800 people have been killed and the West has applied sanctions against Russia.
Ukrainian forces at the weekend launched a counter-offensive to reclaim ground lost to separatists near the international airport in the big city of Donetsk, bringing condemnation from Moscow, which said this had damaged the prospects for a four-power summit on the conflict.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Klimkin pressed for further meetings to implement agreements reached in Minsk, Belarus, last September with Russia and separatist leaders including strengthening a much-violated ceasefire.
Klimkin said separatist forces had abused the Minsk deal by seizing 500 sq km (194 sq miles) of territory beyond agreed separation lines since it was struck.

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