Ukraine crisis :

Putin to hold talks in Milan

18 Oct BBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Milan to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko and key EU leaders to discuss the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The leaders of the UK, Germany, France and Italy are expected to press Mr Putin to do more to end the fighting.

They accuse Russia of arming separatist rebels and sending regular Russian troops to Ukraine. Moscow denies this.

Ukraine and the rebels agreed a truce in September, but both sides accuse each other of repeated shelling.The separatists control parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

More than 3,500 people have been killed since the fighting erupted in April, following the annexation by Russia of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsular a month earlier.Mr Putin will hold a rare meeting with Mr Poroshenko on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe (Asem) summit in the northern Italian city.

Across the table from him will also be UK Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italy's PM Matteo Renzi. President Poroshenko met Ms Merkel ahead of Friday's talks, with both expressing regret that many points of a peace plan agreed last month in the Belarusian capital Minsk “had not yet been implemented”, German government sources were quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Ms Merkel also said it was “first and foremost” Russia's responsibility to make sure the peace plan was being followed.

Among other points, the plan envisages the withdrawal of heavy weaponry 15km (10 miles) by each side from the line of contact and the withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries from the conflict zone.

Earlier this week, Mr Putin ordered the withdrawal of nearly 18,000 Russian troops stationed near the Ukrainian border.However, Nato says it has seen no sign of any major Russian pullback. Speaking ahead of the Milan talks, Mr Putin stressed that he would not be blackmailed by the EU and

US over the Ukrainian crisis.In what was seen as a direct reference to US President Barack Obama, the Russian leader warned of “what discord between large nuclear powers can do to strategic stability”.

With European sanctions imposed on his country and relations at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War, Mr Putin is unlikely to find a particularly warm welcome in Italy, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Milan reports.