Western Foreign Ministers to discuss Ukraine on Jan 9

Ukrainian, Russian, French and German Foreign Ministers hold a conference call later this week to discuss a possible summit meeting of their leaders in Kazakhstan, to address the crisis in east Ukraine, an Ukrainian official said Tuesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevgeny Perebeinos said foreign ministers would hold a conference call on January 9 to discuss possibility their leaders meet in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
He said directors of foreign ministries’ political departments of the four countries agreed when they met in Berlin, Germany, to convene an urgent meeting of the contact group, which consisted of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization of Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE), in the capital of Belarus, Minsk.
The German foreign ministry described the meeting of the political departments’ directors as “constructive” and achieved some progress towards settlement of the crisis in east Ukraine.
French President Francois Hollande had expressed readiness to participate in the proposed Astana summit.