BERLIN, March 13, /ITAR-TASS/. German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmaier said in Budapest on Thursday that hope for a diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian crisis was fading away.
“Almost no hope has been left” Steinmaier said ahead of the forthcoming meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State john Kerry due to be held in London on Friday. He described it as the last attempt to achieve any kind of settlement.
Steinmaier confirmed after meeting his counterparts from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia that the European Union was working on a package of economic sanctions against Russia. He pledged that the EU would be united in its actions.
Earlier this week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe should be reasonable but determined with Russia in the light of the conflict in Ukraine.
The chancellor noted that the imposition of further penalties against Russia could also hurt the other side. She called on Europeans from Lisbon to Riga to act in a united front.