Roundup: Intense diplomacy preludes Minsk summit on Ukraine

A four-way summit on the Ukraine crisis is to take place in Minsk on Wednesday as scheduled as all participating parties have confirmed attendance at the high-stakes conference.

The summit in the Belarusian capital groups German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Earlier in the day, the Kremlin press service confirmed that Putin will visit Minsk on Wednesday to take part in the meeting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who reportedly would also go to Minsk, has said that experts have made tangible progress in preparing all the proposal documents for the summit.

On Wednesday morning, Putin held a telephone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama on seeking a peaceful settlement of the crisis, the first time over the past six months.

Both leaders stressed the importance of reaching a ceasefire as soon as possible and solving the crisis through political ways.

"The two presidents emphasized the importance to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the residents of all Ukrainian regions without exception, including the southeast," the Kremlin press service said in an online statement.

While agreeing to maintain contact at various levels over the tense situation in Ukraine, Putin and Obama discussed Russia's recent proposals in preparation for the Minsk talks.

The U.S. president, for his part, "underscored the importance of President Putin seizing the opportunity presented by the ongoing discussions between Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine to reach a peaceful resolution."

Poroshenko said earlier Wednesday that he would take part in the Minsk talks "to immediately, unconditionally, and without any preconditions to call for a ceasefire and begin political dialogue," according to the Ukrainian presidential website.

The French presidential office also confirmed the participation of Hollande and Merkel, who talked through phone over issues of the summit on Wednesday morning.

The two leaders analyzed the situation and intended to make maximum efforts to achieve successful outcomes of the negotiations.

The Minsk summit is expected to be the consolidation of recent multilateral diplomatic efforts on the conflict settlement.

The leaders of Germany and France travelled to Kiev on Thursday and then to Moscow on the following day with a resolution proposal that could be acceptable to all confronting parties in Ukraine.

Ahead of the Minsk summit, the Contact Group on Ukraine also held talks in Minsk on Tuesday, which comprises representatives from Russia, the Ukrainian government, the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Endi