“Just stop shooting!”
That, reportedly, was what Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shouted at his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last week as the two had an apparently heated exchange during talks in Berlin over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
As reported by news website Liga, citing sources in the Ukrainian delegation present at the talks, Poroshenko interrupted Putin to make the remark, raising his voice in the process.
The Ukrainian president has, however, denied those reports. Speaking in recent days on Ukrainian television he said, “I never raise my voice during negotiations. But I did ask Putin to stop artillery fire from Russian troops.”
The Kremlin has backed up Poroshenko’s version of events, with Russian presidential spokesman Dimitry Peskov telling state-backed news agency RIA Novosti that Putin and Poroshenko had a “difficult” conversation, but that no voices were raised.
The meeting in Berlin on Oct. 19 was the latest round of negotiations in the Normandy Four format, which as well as Ukraine and Russia, includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
The four leaders discussed ways to implement the stalled Minsk II peace agreements to bring about an end to fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where Kremlin-backed militants and Russian troops have occupied parts of the Luhansk and Donbas oblasts since April 2014.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of failing to implement the Minsk deal, which includes provision for a ceasefire in the occupied territories and local elections. Kyiv says no ballot can be held until the security situation stabilizes and accuses Moscow of failing to implement the truce and pull back weapons.
“For our part, Ukraine has begun the process of political reform, with constitutional amendments introduced into our parliament for the decentralization of powers, Natalia Galibarenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, said in a letter to the Financial Times on Oct. 24. “Since Russia has not, however, taken the steps required to end the violence in Donbas, we have been unable to proceed with the political settlement. We are still determined to do what we can to restore lasting peace in Ukraine.”
Following the latest round of talks, the sides agreed to draw up a roadmap for implementing the peace plan. The draft, Poroshenko has said, should be ready by the end of November.
