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By Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to prevent the Ukrainian war from leading to the frozen conflict he's maintaining in some former Soviet states, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said after a meeting in Milan.

Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sat on either side of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at talks this morning also attended by the leaders of Germany, France, Italy. Television pictures showed Putin huddled with France's Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the formal session.

"Vladimir Putin said very clearly that he doesn't want a frozen conflict," Cameron told reporters after the meeting. "He doesn't want a divided Ukraine."

The leaders are aiming to shore up the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and guarantee Europe's gas supply this winter amid mutual recriminations. In the run-up to today's talks, Merkel demanded Putin respect the terms of a September truce and the Russian leader threatened to restrict the supply of gas to Europe.

After missing a scheduled meeting with Merkel after staying late at a military parade in Serbia yesterday, Putin eventually sat down for two hours of talks withe German leader shortly before midnight. Merkel yesterday said Putin had done too little to support a truce between Ukrainian forces and rebels agreed on Sept. 5 in Minsk, Belarus.

Understanding Reality

This morning's talks were "quite constructive," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Unfortunately, we note that some participants of this breakfast show a complete unwillingness to understand the real situation in the southeast of Ukraine."

European leaders and the U.S. have charged Putin's government with providing pro-Russian rebels with cash, weapons and fighters since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula Crimea in March. With winter approaching, Putin said yesterday he'll reduce gas supplies to Europe if the Ukrainian government siphons off fuel for its own use. OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak will also participate in today's talks.

"Talks are not easy," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said after the breakfast meeting. "There are many questions and those questions are not easy. But we have to achieve results.'

Respecting Cease-Fire

European leaders are concerned that the deadlock in eastern Ukraine risks turning into the kind of unresolved or ''frozen'' conflict that's bedeviled several former Soviet states. These include Transnistria, a breakaway part of Moldova, on Ukraine's southwestern border that declared independence in 1990, and South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two separatist regions in Georgia. Russia has troops based in all three regions.

Cameron said that Putin needs to back up his comments to European leaders by respecting the terms of the Minsk cease-fire agreement, echoing Merkel's stance ahead of the meeting.

''Russia now needs to take the actions to put in place all that's been agreed," Cameron said. "Getting Russian troops out of Ukraine, getting heavy weapons out of Ukraine, and respecting all the agreements and only recognizing one legitimate set of Ukrainian elections."

Ruble Slides

Putin said yesterday that he won't bow to pressure from the U.S. and Europe over Ukraine. He also said his government won't be responsible if an energy crisis erupts in the EU, which gets about 15 percent of the natural gas for electricity and heating from Russia via pipelines crossing Ukraine.

The ruble slid to a record low yesterday as the Bank of Russia's pledge to provide $50 billion of foreign currency through 2016 failed to ease the rout amid an oil slump. The Micex index of Russian stocks rose for the first time in three days today gaining 1.6 percent at 1:55 p.m. in Moscow.

Putin's meeting with Poroshenko today precedes a new round of gas talks planned for Oct. 21 in Berlin, as Ukraine tries to ensure it has enough fuel for winter. The EU has been seeking to broker an interim deal between Putin and Poroshenko to avoid a repeat of supply cuts to the bloc in 2006 and 2009.