Putin gives little in discussions on Ukraine war

KIEV, Ukraine – Russian President Vladimir Putin met with European leaders Friday, but little progress was made toward ending the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine. Putin continued to insist his nation bears no responsibility for the conflict that has taken more than 3,700 lives since April.

“We note with regret that several summiteers are absolutely unwilling to understand the real situation in southeast Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters after Putin’s breakfast meeting with the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and the European Commission.

Friday’s talks in Milan were “really difficult, full of contradictions and misunderstanding,” Peskov said. He did, however, call the meeting a useful exchange of views.

Ukrainian and Western leaders accuse Putin of instigating the separatists and of sending in Russian arms and fighters.

The eastern rebellions began days after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in mid-March. Putin had sent Russian paratroopers the month before to seize the strategic peninsula.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had hailed the two-day meeting in Milan as an opportunity to shore up a battered Sept. 5 cease-fire that was supposed to be a first step toward restoring peace after six months of war with the pro-Russia separatists in his country.

Putin arrived late to the summit, forcing a four-hour delay of his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The German leader and Putin met to discuss the Ukraine crisis and the threat of interrupted natural gas deliveries to Western Europe this winter.

“We are closer together on some questions of detail, but the central point is whether the territorial integrity of Ukraine is really respected,” Merkel said after a morning of talks.