Steinmeier sees no grounds for optimism over Ukraine standoff

MOSCOW (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday in Moscow there were no grounds for optimism in the current stand-off between Russia and Ukraine, and all sides had to work to implement a ceasefire struck in September.

"There is no reason for optimism in the current situation," Steinmeier said at a joint news conference with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"What we've got to do is work hard, work hard to convince people in a situation in which the (peace) process that was previously started apparently isn't able to function on its own."

Steinmeier, on his first visit to Moscow since February, also said that Europe was at a crossroads. "We need to be aware that, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're once again seeing speechlessness instead of dialogue, closing off instead of exchange and confrontation instead of cooperation."

(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson and Stephen Brown; writing by Erik Kirschbaum)