Four-way talks move ahead on Ukraine, scant progress on Syria

BERLIN Germany and France pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend a pause in air strikes in Syria and halt the "criminal" bombardment of civilians, but said four-way talks aimed at ending violence in eastern Ukraine made some progress.


"We are talking here about criminal activities, about crimes against the civilians," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters after what she described as a difficult discussion with Putin about the crisis in Syria.


French President Francois Hollande used the phrase "war crimes," and both leaders criticized Russia for attacking the civilian population under the pretense of fighting terrorism.


"We agree that terrorism must be combated, but not at the price that 300,000 people there must lose their lives and suffer without all necessary supplies," Merkel said.


Putin told a separate news conference that Moscow had proposed during the talks to speed up adoption of a new constitution in Syria to facilitate future elections, and said Russia was ready to extend a pause in air strikes in Syria.


Hollande said a longer ceasefire was needed.


"A respite of a few hours makes no sense," he told a joint news conference with Merkel after the talks. "The main point is that the population of Aleppo ... cannot continue to live in conditions that are unbearable."


Merkel said a separate meeting with the leaders of France, Russia and Ukraine that lasted for over five hours had achieved some progress, including agreement on a preliminary road map for implementing the long-stalled Minsk peace agreement.


Foreign ministers will work out details of the plan in November, but hard work remained ahead, Merkel said.


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the sides agreed to withdrawals of Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists from four new areas at the frontline of the fighting in the Donbass region.


They also agreed that monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) could be armed and that their activities in monitoring the so-called Minsk peace process would not be impeded.


Separatist violence erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and has killed 9,600 people so far. It continues despite a ceasefire made in the Belarussian capital Minsk last year. Both Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of perpetuating the violence.


(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Denis Pinchuk, Andreas Rinke, Andrea Shalal and Paul Carrel in Berlin, and Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Lisa Shumaker)

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