Ukrainian official, rebels meeting ends without agreement on talks

Moscow: The Ukrainian officials and pro-Russian separatists Wednesday met in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to resume peace talks, but the meeting concluded without any agreement.

Both sides could not decide whether the parties will meet again Friday, as per previous schedule.

"The time and date of the next meeting are still not clear. They are being discussed," the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, told the Donetsk Information Agency.

After meeting for almost five hours, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and the two representatives for the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, along with the OSCE and Russian representatives, left the venue without speaking to reporters, Russian news agencies reported.

"We've had a difficult meeting and revealing the results before the next meeting would not be correct," said Pushilin.

A few hours before the meeting, which was held after a hiatus of three months in the talks between the warring forces in eastern Ukraine, the leader of the Donetsk rebels, Alexandr Zakharchenko, told reporters, adding that prisoner exchange would be the main issue discussed at the talks.