Kremlin eyes four-way Ukraine summit this year

An international summit on solving the Ukrainian crisis is likely to take place this year, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Monday. A breakthrough at talks between Moscow and Kyiv on Oct. 1 appeared to open the way for the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France to hold the first four-way summit on the conflict in three years.

"I think that the summit would take place... I think this year," Ushakov said. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would discuss Ukraine, Syria, and Libya on the phone later on Monday.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany last met in the so-called Normandy format in October 2016. The group takes its name from a meeting of the countries' leaders in Normandy, in western France, in 2014.