Berlin Talks on Ukraine Yield No Result

As reported by the media, the meeting of the four foreign ministers (France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine) in Berlin, last night, produced no concrete results except an agreement to meet again sometime next week. Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that there is still a long way to go, that they will look for additional options to get progress in the talks, that at this point, a meeting of the respective four heads of state and government in Astana would make no sense but that they continue to prepare for it. Steinmeier spoke of partially “quite differing views” without going into detail.

It is reported that Ukrainian President Poroshenko yesterday made an otherwise unspecified offer to grant eastern Ukraine the status of a special economic zone, whose close relations with Russia would be acknowledged, but that elections would have to be held again in eastern Ukraine, this time under Kiev election laws. On paper, however, eastern Ukraine regions have a certain degree of autonomy already—but that is not respected at all by the government of “Yats,” who continues to sabotage all diplomatic efforts, as he did last Thursday, Jan. 8, in Berlin, when he claimed that the Soviet Union was the one that started World War II against Germany and Ukraine. That provocation has led to some back and forth between the foreign ministries of Russia and Germany since.