Europe Urges Russia To Get Actively Involved In Solving The Ukraine Crisis

France's President Francois Hollande and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel attend a ''Last Post'' ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres, June 26, 2014, to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War I. Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir

Hollande, Merkel Urge Putin To Broker Ukraine Ceasefire -- Reuters

(Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russia's Vladimir Putin on Thursday to encourage separatists in eastern Ukraine to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities, the French president's office said.

Hollande and Merkel stressed in a conversation with the Russian president the importance of implementing a deal reached in Berlin on Wednesday between the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in order to achieve a bilateral ceasefire, according to the statement from Hollande's office.

"They (Hollande and Merkel) called on the Russian president to support the organization of a meeting of the contact group before July 5 in order to define conditions for the ceasefire," Hollande's office said in the statement.

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My Comment: The Europeans are waking up to the complex situation in Ukraine .... and are realizing that this is a political/military/and economic crisis that will need enormous resources to resolve .... and are now hoping that the Russians will pick up the costs. My prediction .... Putin is not going to bite. He knows that this is a crisis that will take enormous political and economic capital to resolve .... and (right now) he does not want to spend it.