BERLIN

The foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany gathered at a mini-summit in Berlin on Wednesday evening with the goal of reaching an agreement on an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts to negotiate in a constructive manner ahead of the four-party talks in Villa Borsig, the guest house of the German Foreign Ministry.

“I hope that our talks will bring us closer not only to a ceasefire but also to decisive steps for the implementation of the Minsk agreement,” Steinmeier told reporters before meeting his Ukrainian, Russian and French counterparts.

The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists signed a cease-fire agreement in Minsk on Sept. 5, but both sides have violated it.

Steinmeier said that people in eastern Ukraine have been paying a high price for the lack of progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreement, with new deadly attacks and a growing humanitarian crisis in the region.  He also warned that the growing tension in the region have also started to ruin the economies of both Russia and Ukraine.

The German foreign minister underlined the need for an agreement on the line of contact in eastern Ukraine and the withdrawal of the heavy weapons from this area, in order to calm the situation in the region.

“In order to achieve a positive outcome in Berlin, the conflict parties should themselves have the will for a solution and show readiness to meet the prerequisites for a leaders' summit in Astana,” he stressed.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev had proposed a summit among Russian, Ukrainian, German and French leaders in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital city, in order to achieve a breakthrough in the quest for a political solution in eastern Ukraine.

But the fresh wave of violence in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk has increased uncertainty over the future of such a meeting and the future of the already agreed ceasefire agreement.

At least 1,363 fatalities have been recorded since the Sept. 2014 ceasefire.