Germany cast doubt yesterday on whether a four-way summit on the Ukraine crisis in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on January 15 would take place and France’s president said the meeting would depend on the likelihood of “new progress” being made.

More than 4,700 people have been killed in fighting between Kiev’s forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine since last April. The conflict has provoked the worst crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on December 29 he had invited the leaders of Russia, France and Germany to talks in an attempt to restore peace.

Such a meeting will only make sense if we can make real progress

Asked about the planned summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said: “I can’t say yet if and when such a meeting will take place. Such a meeting only makes sense if we can make real progress.”

“We have a very clear idea of what constitutes real progress. This would be first and foremost achieving the full implementation of the Minsk peace accord and a genuine and lasting ceasefire, a contact line between areas controlled by Ukraine and rebels, and a withdrawal of heavy weaponry. Such things must be prepared in advance,” he said.

A new volunteer for the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Azov battalion embraces his girlfriend after taking his oath of allegiance to his country in Kiev, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

The Minsk accord between Kiev and the rebels was signed in September but the ceasefire it established has been regularly violated and has sometimes threatened to break down completely.

In an interview with France Inter radio, French President Francois Hollande said he would travel to Astana only if there was a “possibility of making new progress. If it’s just to meet and talk without making any actual advances then there’s no point. But I think there will be progress”. Poroshenko also struck a more cautious note yesterday, saying the talks would take place if “we manage to produce a draft agreed document” before January 15.

Top-ranking diplomats from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France were meeting in Berlin yesterday after their foreign ministers held a telephone conference on Friday.

Merkel is due to meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk in Berlin on Thursday. The German and Ukrainian finance ministers are also due to hold talks that day.