Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the rising number of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine. The ministerial level meeting did not, however, "spend much time looking at who is responsible for the violations of the ceasefire. We tried to identify ways of defusing the entire situation again," said Frank-Walter Steinmeier after the Normandy format meeting. It was the sixth time he had met with Sergei Lavrov, Pavlo Klimkin and Laurent Fabius since July 2014.

On 6 June 2014 Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Vladimir Putin, Petro Poroshenko and François Hollande, all of whom were in Normandy to attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day landings. It was the first time the Russian and Ukrainian Presidents had met since the start of the crisis. Since then, meetings involving representatives of these four states have been known as "Normandy format" meetings.

Securing an effective ceasefire at critical sites

The talks, which lasted over four hours, focused on the military situation in the village of Shirokine on the contact line, which has been the scene of heavy fighting for months. Ertugrul Apakan, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine attended the meeting. Ministers discussed with him the proposal that a local ceasefire be agreed in Shirokine. This could then be taken as an example for the region, like Mariupol. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will have to determine whether this will be accepted in the region.

All ministers affirmed their will to "put in place a situation in which there is an effective ceasefire" as a partial solution, said Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Martin Schäfer in the government press conference on Wednesday.

"There were points in the discussions which were highly controversial." The talks were also marked by "some differences of opinion between Kyiv and Moscow, also on important points, as to what specific steps should be taken to implement the Minsk agreements," reported Martin Schäfer.

Working groups with specific duties

"With a concerted effort" the German and French foreign ministers "managed to put a few very specific issues on the agenda". With the help of the Trilateral Contact Group and the affiliated working groups, progress might be possible on these points in the near future.

The Trilateral Contact Group brings together representatives of the OSCE, Ukraine and Russia.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier reported that "some progress" had been made by the working group on the economy and economic reconstruction, which is looking at whether damaged transport routes and technical infrastructure can be repaired. The reconstruction of bridges that have been destroyed and the repair of damaged water pipes were discussed. In this context "two or three projects were discussed where progress might be possible given cooperation between Ukraine, Russia, representatives of the Donbas region and states like Germany," said the Federal Foreign Minister.

These concrete proposals must make it clear to all sides "that it makes sense to work together, because that way everybody benefits," added Martin Schäfer. By contrast no progress was made on the issues of humanitarian aid and an exchange of prisoners. Neither were there any answers on matters relating to the political process, including the reform of Ukraine’s constitution and the law according special status to parts of Ukraine, as well as the holding of elections in the areas controlled by separatists.

Minsk agreements the only basis

After the talks in Paris, Frank-Walter Steinmeier stressed, "All sides agree that there is no document apart from the Minsk agreements on which we can all build. All parties have clearly affirmed this." This also applies to the Ukrainian and Russian ministers of foreign affairs.

All of them "pinpointed shortcomings in implementation and underlined the need to make good what has been neglected in the past". The German Federal Foreign Minister summed up, "I assume that the parties to the conflict do intend to make good what they have so far failed to do."

The Federal Foreign Office spokesperson said it was "very important" that both Kyiv and Moscow "remain on track and publicly affirm their support for what was agreed and adopted at the summit meeting with the Chancellor and the French President in the night of 11 February and the early hours of 12 February". This is "a sort of roadmap for a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine," Martin Schäfer pointed out.