German FM: Russia, Ukraine agree withdrawal of heavy arms in Berlin talks

Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Russia and Ukraine have agreed on a procedure for the withdrawal of heavy weapons in eastern Ukraine. The battling countries reportedly said they would pull back heavy 15 kilometers from a demarcation line defined in the Minsk agreement of last year. The foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France met in in Berlin in attempts to defuse the conflict in Ukraine.

It appears the ceasefire is becoming ever more brittle.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new peace proposal for Ukraine is little more than a blueprint for military occupation to secure territory seized by Moscow-backed rebels, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said at the meeting. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia of sending 9,000 troops to back separatist rebels in the east of his country, and said Ukraine’s economy has been pushed close to bankruptcy by the war with the rebels.

Time and again President Putin has extended an olive branch in one hand while passing out grad missiles and tanks with the other.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power

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