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Ukraine Leader Sees End To War, Eyes EU Membership By 2020

Ukraine Leader Sees End To War, Eyes EU Membership By 2020

Kiev (AFP) – President Petro Poroshenko has proclaimed an end to the “most dangerous” part of Ukraine’s pro-Russian uprising and the start of a post-war recovery that would lead to an EU membership bid in 2020.

But the upbeat message on Thursday was clouded by new deadly clashes and a defiant decision by guerrillas to hold independent elections on November 2 that Poroshenko said he hoped Russia would not recognize.

Fresh negotiations in a politically-charged energy price dispute will take place in Berlin on Friday between Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission.

Russia suspended deliveries to Ukraine in June due to a price dispute, threatening supplies to some European consumers.

The row, along with the escalating costs of war and the shutdown of giant industries in the east, have only accelerated Ukraine’s economic implosion.

Pro-Western leader Poroshenko told the first press conference since his June inauguration that he would never allow a resurgent Kremlin and gunmen entrenched in Ukraine’s eastern rust belt to halt Kiev’s ambition to break out of Russia’s embrace.

“We suffered for too long in the socialist camp to let someone lower an iron curtain across our western border,” Poroshenko said in reference to Ukraine’s Soviet past.

“I have no doubt that the biggest, most dangerous part of the war is already behind us thanks to the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers.”

The five-month conflict has killed more than 3,200 people and driven 650,000 from their homes across a bomb-scarred region that once served as the country’s economic driving engine.

Poroshenko showed he was determined to continue on a Westward path as he unveiled a comprehensive package of social and economic reforms, dubbed Strategy 2020, which he said “will prepare Ukraine to apply for membership in the European Union in six years”.

The plunge in relations between Moscow and Kiev came after the February ouster of a Moscow-backed leader, followed by the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea and its alleged backing of a bloody pro-Russian revolt.

An unexpected militia counter-offensive at the end of last month was only halted when Poroshenko agreed to a truce the Kremlin helped partially draft.

The plan called for rebel-held regions to hold local council elections on December 7 to help restore law and order.

But separatist leaders soon objected because it gave them only limited self-rule for three years. They now plan to form their own “Supreme Soviet” parliament and elect a formal government.

Poroshenko’s revival program includes 60 proposals to improve his country’s chances of European Union membership — a bid the wealthier European nations currently view with mistrust.

The proposals include efforts to tackle rampant corruption and reform the country’s bribe-infested justice system.

Poroshenko also promised to gain “energy independence” — a reference to Ukraine’s heavy reliance on Russian natural gas.

To add to his woes, Hungary’s gas pipeline network operator FGSZ said Thursday it was indefinitely suspending gas supply to neighboring Ukraine for technical reasons, a move branded “unexpected and unexplained” by Ukraine state-owned gas firm Naftogaz.

The halt in supply came days after a meeting in Budapest between Alexei Miller, head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who often warns against damaging commercial relations with Russia.

Ukraine’s economic growth is expected to slow by seven to 10 percent this year, and this has piled more pressure on Poroshenko ahead of parliamentary polls on October 26.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker is due in Kiev on Friday for talks.

Poroshenko has responded to charges of weakness in the face of Russia by announcing plans to seek NATO membership — a step the Kremlin views as a direct national security threat.

The president reaffirmed his intentions on Thursday by tweeting that he had just “instructed the cabinet minister to revoke Ukraine’s non-aligned (nation) status”.

Leaders of the G7 most developed economies warned Russia Thursday of more sanctions unless all fighting stops in Ukraine and vowed to stand by the country as winter approaches.

Sanctions “can only be rolled back when Russia meets its commitments related to the ceasefire and the Minsk agreements and respects Ukraine’s sovereignty,” said the statement from the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.

Both Kiev and its Western allies accuse Russia of supporting the rebels in eastern Ukraine by sending in elite forces and heavy weapons.

But rebels are continuing to use sophisticated weapons to launch sporadic raids and on Thursday a soldier was killed on the outskirts of the government-held southeastern port of Mariupol.

Ending weeks of speculation, Poroshenko on Thursday ordered his government to prepare the temporary closure of the 1,200-mile land frontier with Russia as part of efforts to halt its “intervention” in Ukraine’s state affairs.

The decision looks set to further hurt Ukraine’s recovery chances by halting trade between the mutually dependent nations and increasing the likelihood of Russia adopting retaliatory steps.

AFP Photo/Sergei Supinsky

Kremlin Says Putin Conquest Vow On Ukraine ‘Taken Out Of Context’

Kremlin Says Putin Conquest Vow On Ukraine ‘Taken Out Of Context’

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

Ukrainian security officials accused Russia of sending more troops and equipment into eastern Ukraine as controversy ensued Tuesday over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reported boast that he could conquer Kiev in two weeks if he wanted.

A Kremlin spokesman lashed out at European Commission President Jose Manuel Borroso, the reported source of Putin’s bellicose vow, saying the Russian leader’s words were taken out of context and that disclosure of his conversation with Borroso was “beyond the bounds of diplomatic practices.”

“If that was really done, it looks not worthy of a serious political figure,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told the Itar-Tass news agency after European newspapers reported Borroso’s disclosure to a weekend meeting of European Union leaders. “Irrespective of whether these words were pronounced or not, this quote was taken out of context and had a very different meaning.”

According to Italy’s La Repubblica and the British tabloid Daily Mail, Borroso reported to the EU leaders in Brussels on a telephone conversation he had with Putin just prior to their gathering Saturday.

“If I want to, I can take Kiev in a fortnight,” Putin reportedly told Borroso in the conversation, in which he also was said to repeat denials that Russia has armed forces on its neighbor’s territory.

Last week, NATO released satellite images of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles rolling into separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine. The Western military alliance also said there were at least 1,000 Russian troops in the area when the previously peaceful town of Novoazovsk was overrun a week ago, opening a new front in the 5-month-old battle between the pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

At his daily briefing in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, Col. Andriy Lysenko of the National Security and Defense Council said more Russian troops had been spotted in the separatist strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Convoys flying white flags signaling a humanitarian mission and sporting signs reading “Children” crossed a bridge into the village of Rozdolne, where four trucks approached Ukrainian troops, Lysenko said.

“Armed people jumped out of the trucks and opened fire at Ukrainian servicemen,” Lysenko said. “Large-scale combat started.”

Russian armed forces continue to build manpower and military equipment in the occupied areas, Lysenko said, noting recent encounters between Ukrainian troops and Russian forces in Donetsk, Luhansk, and a broad array of smaller towns and villages between the rebel-held city centers and the Sea of Azov.

“According to our operational data, there are no fewer than four (Russian) battalion-tactical groups in Ukraine,” Lysenko said, estimating that each comprised 400 men.

The buildup of Russian forces on Ukrainian territory has forced the government to revise its strategy from countering an insurgency to confront what is now an attack by a foreign invader, Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey said on his Facebook page.

“This is our Great Patriotic War,” he wrote, alluding to the Soviet Union’s costly victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

AFP Photo/Maxim Shipenkov

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Obama Accuses Russia, Says No U.S. Military Action In Ukraine

Obama Accuses Russia, Says No U.S. Military Action In Ukraine

Washington (AFP) — U.S. President Barack Obama said it was “plain for the world to see” that Russian forces were fighting in Ukraine, but ruled out any U.S. military action to resolve the escalating conflict.

Obama, who is due in Wales next week for a NATO summit, made clear that ex-Soviet states now in the alliance could expect a U.S. military defense, but said such guarantees did not apply to non-member Kiev.

He however told reporters that he would host Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in September to discuss the escalating crisis. The meeting will be on September 18, the White House said.

Obama’s comments came after NATO reported that hundreds of Russian government troops had crossed into east Ukraine to shore up the pro-Kremlin fighters there.

“Russia has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the new images of Russian forces inside Ukraine make that plain for the world to see,” Obama said.

“This ongoing Russian incursion into Ukraine will only bring more costs and consequences for Russia.”

The United States and the EU have already imposed a series of punishing sanctions on Russia over the crisis, the worst standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Also on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders would discuss possible new measures against Moscow at a summit in Brussels on Saturday.

“We want a diplomatic solution, and we will not let up on this, but we have to acknowledge that things have become more difficult and worsened again in recent days,” Merkel said.

Obama said he had spoken to Merkel about Ukraine, and that the pair had agreed “the violence is encouraged by Russia; the separatists are trained by Russia; they are armed by Russia. They are funded by Russia.”

The U.S. leader nevertheless said that Washington was “not taking military action to solve the Ukrainian problem.”

“It is not on the cards for us to see a military confrontation between Russia and the United States in this region,” he said.

Obama added that while Ukraine was not a member of NATO, “a number of those states that are close by are. And we take our Article Five commitments to defend each other very seriously.”

Obama will visit NATO member Estonia before heading to Wales for the NATO meeting.

The U.S. leader insisted that the United States stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Kiev and was doing everything possible to ensure “they have the best chance at dealing with what is admittedly a very difficult situation.”

Washington’s envoy to the United Nations earlier called on Moscow to “stop lying” about its involvement in the deadly conflict, which the U.N. estimates has claimed more than 2,200 lives since April.

“Russia has to stop lying and has to stop fueling this conflict,” the envoy, Samantha Power, told an emergency session of the 15-member UN Security Council.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington’s focus remained on “non-lethal assistance” to Ukraine.

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb

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Ukraine President: Russian Forces Have Invaded

Ukraine President: Russian Forces Have Invaded

By Isabel Gorst, Los Angeles Times

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called a snap meeting of his security council on Thursday, declaring that Russian forces had invaded Ukraine.

Poroshenko summoned the council as pro-Russian separatist rebels tightened their grip on the town of Novoazovsk in southern Ukraine, opening a new front in the months long battle with Ukrainian government troops.

“Today the president’s place is in Kiev,” he said.

“I have decided to cancel my visit to Turkey because of the sharp escalation of the situation in the Donetsk region … as Russian forces have entered Ukraine,” he added.

Two columns of Russian tanks and military vehicles fired Grad missiles at a border post in southeastern Ukraine, then rolled into the country Thursday as overmatched border guards fled, the Associated Press quoted a top Ukrainian official as saying.

Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council, said the missiles from Russia were fired about 11 a.m. and about an hour and a half later the vehicles began an attack. They entered Ukraine from Veselo-Voznesenka, just across the border from Novoazovsk in the Rostov region in Russia.

A top NATO official said at least 1,000 Russian troops have poured into Ukraine with sophisticated equipment and have been in direct “contact” with Ukrainian soldiers, resulting in casualties, the news service reported. He called that a conservative estimate and said an additional 20,000 Russian troops were right over the border in Russia.

Novoazovsk had until recently escaped the conflict raging further north in Donetsk but came under heavy fire this week as separatist forces pressed into the city.

Ukrainian officials would be calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and a meeting of the European Commission to discuss the escalating crisis, Poroshenko’s media service said.

As tensions rose in Kiev, Russian state television broadcast an interview with a Ukrainian rebel leader who claimed that thousands of Russian citizens were fighting alongside the separatists in southeast Ukraine as volunteers.

Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk Peoples Republic, said many of the Russians who had joined the rebels’ ranks were retired military personnel or soldiers on leave.

“They are fighting with us understanding that it is their duty,” he said.

Arseniy Yatseniuk, Ukraine’s prime minister, appealed to the West for support, urging the United States, European Union, and the G7 countries to freeze Russian assets until Moscow halted military support for the separatists.

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending troops and military equipment across the border to support the rebels, who have lost ground to government troops in recent weeks and have opened up a new front in the southern Donetsk region bordering the Azov and Black Seas. Russia has repeatedly denied military involvement in the conflict in southeast Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to demand an explanation of reports that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine, according to her office.

The Kremlin media service said Putin had informed Merkel that Russia was planning to follow up on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Donetsk last week with another aid mission to the embattled region.

Zakharchenko said accusations by Kiev and the West that Russia had invaded Ukraine were a ploy to justify the Ukrainian military’s onslaught on rebel strongholds in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 Russian citizens had fought as volunteers alongside the separatist rebels in southeast Ukraine. “Some have gone home, more have stayed,” he said.

Among the volunteers are Russian servicemen on leave, who choose to give up their vacations to join “their brothers in the fight for freedom.”

Zakharchenko admitted that some of the Russian fighters had been killed in battle, adding weight to a spate of media reports describing the secret burials of soldiers in Russia. The Kremlin has dismissed the reports as “‘rumors.”

This story has been updated.

AFP Photo/Francisco Leong

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