MINSK, Belarus (AP) ? The presidents of Russia and Ukraine sat down for talks Tuesday, meeting face-to-face for the first time since June on the fighting that has engulfed Ukraine's separatist east.
Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko were joined by the presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan and three senior officials from the European Union in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
"The fate of my country and Europe is being decided here in Minsk today. The interests of Donbass (eastern Ukraine) have been and will be taken into account," Poroshenko said Tuesday as the talks began.
The Ukrainian president was expected to face pressure to find a negotiated settlement ? not a military victory ? to the fighting that began in April between pro-Russian rebels and government troops. That was the option called for by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a visit to Kiev last weekend.
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