Lukashenka the only leader to attend the final press conference

On August 26 Minsk hosted the summit of the Customs Union countries, Ukraine and the EU. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to the Belarusian capital. The main topic of the summit was the ways to resolve the situation in Ukraine. 

On the evening of 26 August, the final press conference took place in Minsk  which was attended only by Alyaksandr Lukashenka. He said that everyone supported the proposals of Petro Poroshenko Minsk to make Minsk a regular venue for meetings of the contact group Ukraine - Russia - the OSCE, which will continue to seek solutions to the crisis in Donbas. Poroshenko insisted that the meeting should be held the next day, said Lukashenka. According to him, by September 12 the working group should develop proposals for removing the problems that have arisen with Russia (concerning the Customs Union) due to the signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Moreover, it should be done before the ratification of the agreement by the Ukrainian Parliament, otherwise everything would be meaningless, paraphrased Lukashenka Putin's speech in Belarus. 

Lukashenka noted that "the parties' positions differ, sometimes dramatically, but it is important that all the parties agreed on the fact that we need to look for a compromise." However, everyone supported the need for de-escalation and release of the hostages. 

As it became known, at this very moment, the bilateral meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia is being held. According to Lukashenka, Putin and Poroshenko will provide information about its results themselves. 

Photo - Euroradio, Reuters