MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Intense talks on ending the war in Ukraine stretched through the night on Thursday as the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany sought to untangle a complicated skein of military and political issues.
More than 5,300 people have died since April in the fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in two eastern provinces and the bloodshed rose sharply in recent weeks.
In a diplomatic blitz that began last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande visited Kiev and Moscow to speak to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin, paving the …read more
Source: San Francisco Chronicle