Ukraine Peace Talks Underway in Paris

Local Editor

The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine meet in Paris Friday to consolidate a fragile peace in Ukraine, as Moscow -- now heavily engaged in the Syria conflict -- eyes relief from biting sanctions.

Talks on Ukraine come as the devastation on the edge of Europe has been overshadowed by a refugee crisis spurred by the war in Syria and Russia's dramatic military intervention there to support President Bashar al-Assad.

The Paris meeting will be the first time Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Western leaders since launching air strikes in Syria -- in which he has been accused of targeting the US-trained militants rather than "ISIL" militants.

However while Putin is to hold bilateral talks with French leader Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Syria, officials insist the main order of the day is ironing out kinks in the peace process in Ukraine, where fighting has all but stopped.

The main points of contention are the holding of local elections in separatist eastern Ukraine, ensuring access for international observers to militant zones, and the removal of heavy weapons from the frontline.

"I am counting on the fact that the Minsk accords will be carried out, which unfortunately today is not the case," Putin said in Moscow Thursday, speaking about the peace deal struck in February.

"We are far from a resolution, but there are elements that boost our confidence that the crisis can be overcome and the most important point is that there is currently no shooting."

After repeated violations of previous truces, the latest ceasefire, called last month, has been largely observed by pro-Russian forces and Ukrainian forces, raising hopes that a conflict that has left around 8,000 people dead in 17 months is drawing to a close.

However, the warring sides had yet to find a lasting political solution to the crisis that plunged relations between Moscow and the West to their worst levels since the Cold War.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team