Top officials hail 'progress' on Ukraine deal

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / AFP

Kiev (AFP) - Progress has been made on some contentious issues in the peace process, the foreign ministers of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France said after holding talks in Berlin to prepare for a summit in Paris on October 2.

Germany's top diplomat, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the meeting had been "less confrontational" than previous ones and that the warring sides were now "very close" to an agreement on withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline.

But Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged the West not to lift sanctions on Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict unless the Minsk peace deal is fully implemented.

Yatsenyuk earlier Saturday told the West that Russia needed to fully respect the peace deal before there could be any talk of easing sanctions.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-pm-warns-west-not-lift-russia-sanctions-143511752.html

[dave_p]

1. sure

When one side calls for continued sanctions weeks before a summit to discuss a deal, then there is clearly no deal.

These idiots need to discuss a deal. Then they can talk about a deal. Until then there is no deal. Don't headline it "deal".

[salib]

2. The U.S. does not appear to be a part of these discussions.

Thus, this is of little significance. We are the ones sending arms and training soldiers in Ukraine.

Ukraine will always expect a better deal then if the U.S. is not at the table.