The Presidents of Russia and Ukraine sat down for talks on Tuesday, meeting face-to-face for the first time since June on the fighting that has engulfed Ukraine’s separatist east.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko were joined by the Presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan and three senior officials from the European Union in Minsk.
“The fate of my country and Europe is being decided here in Minsk today. The interests of Donbass (eastern Ukraine) have been and will be taken into account,” Mr. Poroshenko said.
Opening Tuesday’s meeting, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko urged both sides to “discard political ambitions and not to seek political dividend.”
The talks came as Ukraine said its forces had captured 10 Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine and the shelling spread to a new front in the far southeast.
