MOSCOW, December 3 (Sputnik) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier late Wednesday in Basel to discuss a range of bilateral issues as well as the situation in Ukraine, a source in the Russian delegation at the talks said.
"The sides will discuss bilateral agenda, the situation in Ukraine ahead of the meeting of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] Council of Foreign Ministers, and Germany's candidacy for chairmanship in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2016," the source told RIA Novosti.
The OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers meets in the Swiss city of Basel on December 4-5. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said earlier this week Lavrov might also hold fringe talks with the US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday or Friday.
Lavrov and Steinmeier met earlier in November in Moscow during the German foreign chief's trip to Russia, which was the first high-level German visit to the Russian capital in months. The two ministers discussed the situation in Ukraine, stressing the need for continuation of the talks on Ukrainian reconciliation and for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, specifically regarding the creation of a buffer zone and withdrawal of heavy weaponry.
The armed conflict in Ukraine began in mid-April, when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the country's southeast.
In September, a ceasefire deal was agreed in Minsk at a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine, which included representatives from Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia. Despite the agreement, the Ukrainian army and independence supporters have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce.
