MILAN, October 17 (RIA Novosti) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Friday he was not very optimistic about the peace process in eastern Ukraine following his breakfast meeting with the Russian leader.
“Unfortunately, I am not very optimistic,” Reuters cited Poroshenko as saying at a fringe meeting with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.
Both meetings took place on the margins of the two-day Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit in Milan, in northern Italy.
The early-morning talks between Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, were also attended by several EU leaders: British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, as well as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. The meeting was hosted by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The last meeting between Poroshenko and Putin was held in Minsk on August 26 during trilateral talks that also involved heads of Russia's Customs Union partner nations Belarus and Kazakhstan, along with EU officials.
