Putin, Poroshenko held two rounds of secret talks: Kiev

KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s office said on Thursday that he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held two secret and fruitless phone talks about the war in the east of the ex-Soviet state over the past month.

Poroshenko’s press office said the rare contacts between the foes came during a severe flare-up in fighting between government forces and Russianbacked separatists last month.

The upsurge in violence killed 35 people in early February and centred around the government-held town of Avdiivka. “Because these talks were fruitless, there was no separate statement made about them,” the Ukrainian presidency said.

The Kremlin said it could confirm that “several” conversations had taken place, but it insisted there was no direct discussion on establishing a ceasefire around Avdiivka.

“There was an exchange of views and an expression of mutual concern about the escalating tensions,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Direct conversations between Putin and Poroshenko have become increasingly rare as the conflict that has cost some 10,000 lives has dragged on for nearly three years.

They usually occur in the presence of the leaders of Germany or France — co-sponsors of a stalled February 2015 peace deal that has helped contain some of the fighting but not end the war. It remained unclear who initiated the calls.