Russia expects Berlin meeting to help implement Minsk accords

Russia hopes that the upcoming quadripartite meeting of foreign ministers in Berlin can help implement the Minsk agreements on settlement of the Ukraine crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

"Hopefully, today's meeting in Berlin will promote the complete and comprehensive fulfillment of Minsk agreements," Lavrov was quoted by the Tass news agency as as saying following talks with his Latvian counterpart, Edgars Rinkevics.

He stressed that the most important task of current international intermediation mechanisms on the Ukraine crisis is to urge practical fulfillment of agreements.

A "Normandy-format" meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France will be held in Berlin Monday evening to prepare for a possible leaders' gathering over the Ukraine crisis, temporarily set for Jan. 15 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

Lavrov also called for the start of a dialogue on Ukraine's constitutional reform involving all the political forces and regions concerned.

"Russia is certain that the most important thing is to begin a true and direct nationwide dialogue on constitutional reform involving all regions and political forces of Ukraine to achieve national reconciliation, as well as a final national accord to make all Ukrainians feel safe and comfortable," he said.

The minister reiterated that the West should tame the hawks in Kiev in order to avoid a military solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

As Latvia is holding the rotating European Union (EU) presidency in the first half of 2015, Lavrov reaffirmed Russia's interest in strategic relationships with the EU, as well as Moscow's readiness to solve problems together with the bloc based on the balance of interests.

For his part, Rinkevics said all sides of the Ukraine crisis should fully comply with the Minsk agreements and try to find areas of common interests to settle the problem, adding that negotiations would be complicated and time-consuming.

He said the EU would "seriously consider" softening or even lifting anti-Russian sanctions if true progress is made during the Ukrainian peace process. Otherwise, a fresh package of restrictive measures would be adopted if the situation continued to worsen.

On Sept. 5, 2014, a ceasefire protocol was signed in the Belarussian capital of Minsk between representatives from Kiev and the rebel leadership in an attempt to end the bloody conflict in east Ukraine, but the agreement has never been fully implemented. Endi