You're reading: Merkel not optimistic about shaky ceasefire in Ukraine

WASHINGTON - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Feb. 15 that the situation in eastern Ukraine remained fragile and that the path to a comprehensive peace would be "extremely difficult".

“The situation is fragile [in Ukraine’s east]. It was always clear that much remains to be done. And I have always said that there are no guarantees that what we are trying to do succeeds. It will be an extremely difficult path,” she told the journalists in Berlin on Feb. 15, as Bloomberg reported.