KIEV, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The meeting between U.S. envoy Kurt Volker and his Russian counterpart Vladislav Surkov, aiming to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, is an important step towards a peaceful resolution to the crisis, Ukrainian experts said here on Monday.
Volker, who is the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, and Surkov, who is Russian presidential aide, held a closed-door meeting earlier in the day in Minsk, Belarus.
Although the agenda of the talks has not been made public, analysts believe the two officials met to exchange their views on Ukraine crisis.
"Both participants of the meeting are the envoys of their states and each of them tried to convey the position of his state and his leadership to the counterpart. So, this meeting was a certain synchronization of the positions, therefore it was held in a closed format," said Igor Tyshkevich, an analyst at the Ukrainian Institute of the Future.
The experts believed that the search for a compromise on the implementation of the Minsk deal was another topic of the discussion.
"The meeting is extremely important in the context of reaching an agreement on concrete steps to unlock the Minsk process," said Dmytro Korniychuk, the head of the Center for Innovation Consulting.
The Minsk peace process was launched in February 2015, when a 13-point Minsk agreement, outlining the steps needed to end the conflict between government troops and pro-independence insurgents in Ukraine's eastern regions, was reached in talks involving leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.
The peace process has reached a stalemate as the Ukrainian government and the insurgent leadership have different views on the timetable for implementing the deal.
The government insists that security provisions are the priority points to be implemented, which include a comprehensive ceasefire, weapon withdrawal and the government control of Ukraine-Russia border in the conflict area.
However, the insurgents demand Kiev to immediately perform political steps prescribed in the deal, including autonomy to the restive region, local elections and amnesty to detained rebels.
During the talks, Volker and Surkov were reportedly focusing on finding ways out of the conflict acceptable to both parties. One of the options could be a simultaneous implementation of certain political and security provisions of the Minsk agreement.
The possible search for the compromise solution during the meeting could be confirmed by the fact that shortly after negotiations in Minsk, on Aug. 23, Volker will pay a visit to Ukraine.
In Kiev, the U.S. envoy will presumably deliver the results of the meeting with Surkov to the Ukrainian authorities and will discuss with them further steps out of the confrontation in the war-torn Donetsk and Lugansk.
It is too early to predict whether the meeting between Volker and Surkov could bring immediate positive results, but it is safe to say that the talks will likely bring fresh air into the peace efforts in eastern Ukraine, the experts said.
"The negotiations are the evidence that a new communication channel on Ukrainian crisis is being under construction. Moscow and Washington will try to resolve Ukraine's issue together," said Alexandra Reshmedilova, a political scientist at Kiev-based international information and analysis center CRU.
