© REUTERS/ Mikhail Palinchak/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Earlier, reports emerged that during his visit to Donbass Poroshenko stated that Ukraine would not advance with the implementation of the political part of the Minsk agreements while there were unresolved security issues in the region.
"I believe that this is only a pretext not to fulfill political part [of the Minsk deal]. One must go at least in parallel - both by achieving implementation of security issues and making absolutely necessary steps in political sphere for the resolution [of the conflict] in the long-term perspective in general. Without this it will be impossible to reach settlement," Putin told journalists.
Earlier this month, a number of officials, such as French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Russia's presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, said that the next meeting of the Normandy Quartet leaders on Ukraine could be held in Berlin on October 19.
"We reached an agreement with French President [Francois Hollande] and German Chancellor [Angela Merkel], when we held a telephone conversation some time ago, that this meeting in Berlin will be appropriate if our assistants...who have met, I think, on Saturday, Sunday in Minsk, advance the dialogue so far that it will give us the opportunity to secure this agreement at the high-level meeting," the president stressed. Putin also expressed hope that the conflict in eastern Ukraine would not last forever and that the problems would be solved as quickly as possible.
Comment: Meanwhile: Militia commander Motorola killed in bombing attack in eastern Ukraine