Russia expects detailed talks on Ukraine crisis settlement to take place at Minsk summit
MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, will meet personally for the second time in the past three months to discuss different aspects of efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
This will happen on Tuesday in Minsk, where the Customs Union member countries (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) will meet with Ukraine at Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's initiative in the presence of European Union officials.
The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are expected to hold their own talks first. Afterwards, they will be joined by Poroshenko, EU High Representative on the Common Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, EU Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht and EU Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will not be able to attend the Minsk negotiations "due to previous arrangements."
The main intrigue of the upcoming summit is whether or not the Russian and Ukrainian presidents will meet separately.
The first personal meeting of Putin and Poroshenko took place during the 70th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings in Normandy at the beginning of June, when the Russian and Ukrainian leaders briefly spoke to each other in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
The Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax on Monday that Putin is expected to hold a series of bilateral meetings in Minsk, including a possible meeting with Poroshenko.
"Firstly, we expect during this meeting, if it takes place after all, an honest conversation on resolving the Ukrainian crisis and humanitarian issues," Peskov said.
"It is hard to expect that the presidents will be able to discuss the whole vast agenda during this meeting," he said.
At the same time, when asked whether Russia was ready to discuss the gas topic in such a format, Peskov said: "Of course, the gas issue is an important aspect of the agenda for our bilateral relations."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for his part, said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday that, hopefully, at their meeting in Minsk on August 26 the presidents of the Customs Union member states and Ukraine, as well as representatives from the European Union would call for the humanitarian crisis in east Ukraine to be resolved.
"We certainly hope that tomorrow's meeting in Minsk will touch upon the problem of the humanitarian crisis in any particular format," Lavrov said.
"Everyone expects the Minsk meeting to help exchange the opinions on the efforts to begin the political process to resolve the crisis in Ukraine," he said.
Russia has recognized Petro Poroshenko as Ukraine's president in the hope that he will stop the war, not drive the domestic conflict into deadlock, Lavrov said.
He also advised against putting forth any ultimatums at the meeting in Minsk.
Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's readiness to "look for ways to harmonize Ukraine's relations with the Customs Union, the CIS free trade area and with the European Union in the economic sphere."
Ukrainian President Poroshenko, for his part, said last week that he would seek to agree on ways to restore peace in Ukraine's eastern regions during this meeting
Kyiv hopes that the next two weeks will become a crucial point in its search for ways to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
