Putin says Ukraine peace ‘moving forward’ despite problems

Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday that the peace process in eastern Ukraine was progressing despite difficulties. Merkel reaffirmed her support for the peace efforts and repeated her calls to Putin to use his influence with pro-Russian separatists battling Kiev government forces to end a conflict in which more than 6,000 people have been killed since April 2014.

There is every reason to believe the Minsk process is moving forward, though with problems.

Russian president Vladimir Putin

Relations between Russia and Germany, which have multi-billion-dollar trade and energy links, have soured sharply over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean region and its support for the separatists. Berlin has strongly backed the Western economic sanctions subsequently slapped on Russia. Merkel and French President Francois Hollande helped broker the Minsk ceasefire deal on Feb 12 but it has been violated many times. Both sides report small numbers of casualties on an almost daily basis.

Politics putin merkel