Poroshenko, Putin claim headway

On Tuesday, Petro Poroshenko (right in photo) said he had held "tough and complex" multilateral talks in Minsk with Russia's Vladimir Putin (left), EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (second from left), Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (second right) and Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev.

"A roadmap will be prepared in order to achieve as soon as possible a ceasefire regime, which absolutely must be bilateral in character," Poroshenko said in a statement after the talk with Putin on Tuesday.

Ahead of the meeting, there was an obvious difference in how both referred to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine's east, which has killed 2,200 people over the past four months. Poroshenko had said the goal of his visit to Belarus was to "end the bloodshed and begin the search for political compromise."

Putin's peace

Earlier Tuesday, Putin had urged dialogue rather than military escalation in the conflict and Poroshenko called on his counterpart to stop supplying weapons to separatists in Ukraine - a claim the Russian officials have repeatedly denied.

After meeting with Poroshenko one on one, Putin said that the presidents had discussed the need to end the conflict, but that Ukraine's government would have to engage with the separatists directly. Putin said, though, that Russian officials would aid in any negotiations.

"Russia will do everything for the peace process if it begins," Putin told journalists just after midnight in Belarus (2100 Tuesday UTC).

Putin also said that he and Poroshenko had agreed to talks on gas supplies between the two countries.

mkg/jm (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)