Minsk meeting intended to end Ukraine conflict enters second day

The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France are likely close to reaching an agreement on resolving the Ukrainian conflict after overnight negotiations that began on Wednesday, diplomatic sources confirmed on Thursday morning, agencies report.

However, the BBC subsequently reported Poroshenko's statement that Russian conditions were unacceptable. Poroshenko said this during a break in the marathon negotiations.

Negotiators gathered in Minsk in an attempt to conclude a peace agreement for Ukraine "hope" that the Contact Group, meeting in parallel in the Belarusian capital, could sign an agreement on Friday, a diplomatic source said on Thursday. 

- There is hope that the Contact Group will sign an agreement - said the source - AFP reports.

Presidents Vladimir Putin, Petro Poroshenko, Francoise Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel continued their marathon negotiations on Thursday morning, which began earlier yesterday in Minsk.

The trilateral contact group for Ukraine brings together representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Russia, and Ukraine. Representatives of pro-Russian separatists have also been invited to the group's meeting in Minsk.

Mostly a dead letter on paper, the ceasefire "protocol" in eastern Ukraine signed on September 5, 2014, in Minsk, expanded by a memorandum of September 19, is so far the only agreement signed by all parties in an attempt to resolve the conflict in which more than 5,300 people have died in ten months, agencies report.