Russian and Ukrainian diplomats held four rounds of talks to try to resolve the crisis in February and March, but stopped meeting after Kiev pulled out of negotiations as US and European officials announced that the conflict must be decided on the battlefield, and sent tens of billions of dollars-worth of military hardware and economic aid to Kiev. The United States and its European allies are conducting “secret consultations” aimed at ending the Ukrainian crisis, Germany’s Welt newspaper has indicated. In an commentary published Friday, former US ambassador to Germany John Kornblum and German journalist Rudiger Lentz claimed that the...
