Article content

When world leaders pull an all-nighter, something has to come out of it. What came out of the 17-hour, Ironman-level endurance test in Minsk is a ceasefire deal for eastern Ukraine that mitigates the Kyiv government’s defeat in a war it could not have won, gives Russian-backed rebels two days to make final territorial gains and freezes the conflict until next year.

The challenge now is to make this ceasefire stick where previous ones didn’t. It’s not clear if Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has proven to be an unreliable negotiating partner in recent months, will stand by the few concessions he made. If he can be held to them, it will be a major diplomatic victory for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. My bet, however, is that this is not the final round of high-level talks: the deal resulting from the negotiating marathon is too contradictory to work long-term.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Leonid Bershidsky: A win for Putin Back to video

[np_storybar title=”After marathon talks, a peace deal to end the 10-month war in eastern Ukraine — but will it take hold?” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/12/after-marathon-talks-a-peace-deal-to-end-the-10-month-war-in-eastern-ukraine-but-will-it-take-hold/”]MINSK, Belarus — Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany on Thursday emerged from marathon 16-hour talks to announce a comprehensive peace deal for eastern Ukraine, but questions remained whether Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels have agreed on all of its terms.