BERLIN: Germany, often accused of stepping too lightly on the world stage, has taken an unusually vocal and active stand over the Ukrainian crisis and is helping mediate an end to the turmoil.
In the EU's relations with eastern Europe and Russia, Berlin has increasingly acted as a voice for the 28-nation bloc, drawing on geographic proximity and old communication channels, say analysts.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up under communism in the former East Germany, became strongly engaged in the three-month-old standoff between the pro-Moscow leadership in Kiev and pro-Western demonstrators.
Last week she hosted Ukrainian opposition leaders, including former world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who long lived in Germany and is a popular household name in the country.
As Ukraine's bloody turmoil reached a head, Germany's foreign minister, along with his Polish and French counterparts, jetted into Kiev and helped hammer out a deal that brought the country back from the brink.
Long after France's Laurent Fabius had left for China, Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski held all-night marathon talks with President Viktor Yanukovych.
On Friday they were able to witness the signing of the deal, in which the embattled leader promised a new unity government, constitutional reform and elections before the end of the year.
Despite widespread caution over whether the deal will hold, Germany's Die Welt newspaper cheered the diplomatic coup, saying Steinmeier and Sikorski took a big gamble that had "risked a loss of face".
"Let no-one say that the EU is a paper tiger," said the conservative daily.
Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert suggested it was the chancellor who paved the way for the crucial mediating role of the EU envoys.
She had called Yanukovych and "was able to convince him to accept the foreign ministers in Kiev as dialogue partners, as witnesses and as moderators", Seibert said.
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