MILAN, October 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that Moscow does not want a frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy told journalists at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit press conference on Friday.

“The President of Russia has assured us that Russia is not interested in the creation of a new 'frozen conflict', a new Transdniestria,” Rompuy said, adding that at the talks Putin confirmed his support for keeping the eastern regions as part of Ukraine.

The statement comes amid concerns by the European leaders that eastern Ukraine could turn into an unresolved conflict like the one in Transdniestria, a breakaway region of Moldova, on Ukraine’s south-western border, which declared independence in 1990.

Leaders of the European Union see positive developments in the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, Rompuy said. “What we agreed was the protocol of Minsk on the ceasefire and the peace plan is of crucial importance,” Rompuy said. “We have to implement this. This would guarantee again a future for Ukraine. So implementation, implementation, implementation — that are the key words.”

The European Union is ready to assist Ukraine in monitoring its border with Russia, the European Council's president Herman Van Rompuy noted.

Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, British Prime Minister David Cameron, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy took part in the working breakfast that lasted for an hour and a half.