Lavrov Arrives in Berlin for Normandy Four Group Talks on Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Berlin on Wednesday for a Normandy Four ministerial meeting on Ukraine with his German, French and Ukrainian counterparts, a RIA Novosti correspondent said.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — The four chief diplomats are expected to gauge Ukrainian peace progress and steps taken to implement last year’s Minsk accords, which aim to stop fighting in Ukraine’s southeastern areas. 

#Karasin: Kiev authorities are either unable or unwilling to move forward in the implementation of Minsk agreements https://t.co/8qi8Ozzr2F

— MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) 11 May 2016

​The focus will be on Kiev’s amnesty promises, prisoner swaps, constitutional reforms, and local elections in the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk provinces.

On the eve of the ministerial meeting, dubbed Normandy format, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov lamented the Minsk deal progress as "deplorable" and said the four-way talks were crucial to efforts to bring peace to Ukraine.

This will be the third such meeting since the start of the year. The previous negotiations were hosted by Paris on March 3, bringing them home almost two years after Russian, French German and Ukrainian leaders first discussed the crisis at celebrations marking the anniversary of WWII allied landings in northern France.