Tag: separatists
Ukraine Wants Talks With Russia But With U.S. Participation

Ukraine Wants Talks With Russia But With U.S. Participation

dpa (TNS)

KIEV — Ukraine on Tuesday suggested fresh talks with Russia over the bloody conflict with separatists, but insisted that the United States should participate.

“We invite the Russian Federation to hold serious negotiations on neutral territory,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in Kiev, according to local news agencies.

Yatsenyuk added that such negotiations should be held in the so-called Geneva format, which includes the U.S. and the European Union, but does not include separatist leaders.

He stressed that everything depends on Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If he has the political will to end this war against Ukraine and to respect international law, we are ready to continue talks,” Yatsenyuk said after a meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Russia quickly rejected the initiative. Kiev should hold talks with the insurgents and not with Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Interfax.

Yatsenyuk was speaking after German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier held talks in Kiev to save the fragile ceasefire between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Steinmeier said the ceasefire continues to be relevant and warned of a risk of major military confrontation.

The Minsk ceasefire agreements are not perfect, but a good “basis for reference,” Steinmeier said after talks with Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko.

Ukraine accuses Russia and the separatists of undermining the accords, signed in September in the Belarusian capital.

Poroshenko handed Steinmeier a list of violations that he says were committed by Moscow.

“Russia has not fulfilled a single criteria,” he said. As examples he named the sealing of the Russian-Ukrainian border and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday accused Russia of a “serious military buildup” both inside eastern Ukraine and on the Russian side of the border.

“We see the movement of troops, of equipment, of tanks, of artillery and also advanced air defence systems,” Stoltenberg said ahead of talks with EU defence ministers in Brussels.
He called on Moscow to pull back its forces and to respect the Minsk agreements.

Moscow vehemently denies the accusations. However, in an interview released on Monday President Putin said Russia would not allow the Ukrainian military to defeat the separatists.

Steinmeier arrived in Moscow later on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov dampened hopes for the visit.

“Nobody expects a breakthrough, but we appreciate the regular dialogue with Germany and other EU countries,” he said in Minsk, according to Russian news agencies.

The German minister’s mission comes after Western leaders and Putin failed to make any progress toward resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine during talks at the recent G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met Putin for two hours in Brisbane, later gave a pessimistic account and warned of growing Russian interference in other parts of Europe.

The fighting between government troops and pro-Russian rebels has killed more than 4,000 people since it began in April.

AFP Photo/Anatoliy Stepanov

Ukraine Denies Rights Group Report It Uses Cluster Bombs

Ukraine Denies Rights Group Report It Uses Cluster Bombs

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian armed forces have never used prohibited weapons such as cluster bombs in their fight against pro-Russia separatists, a military spokesman insisted Tuesday after a rights group reported it had documented a dozen instances when the indiscriminate weapons were used in populated areas.
The report by Human Rights Watch also said there were circumstances, “while not conclusive,” suggesting that the separatists had also used the weapons that pack dozens or hundreds of small bomblets inside a rocket that explode over a wide area and put many people at risk.
“It is shocking to see a weapon that most countries have banned used so extensively in eastern Ukraine,” Human Rights Watch senior arms researcher Mark Hiznay said of the group’s weeklong investigation into the use of cluster bombs in Donetsk, a city of 1 million residents before the conflict.
Cluster bombs leave a distinctive crater and fragmentation pattern, the rights group’s report noted, and several of the remnants examined included markings that allowed for positive identification of the source.
Col. Andriy Lysenko of the National Security and Defense Council said Ukraine appreciates the work of international monitors and human rights workers in battle-torn eastern Ukraine but cautioned that the independent observers needed to be vigilant against incidents staged by the Russian-backed rebels.
“There are provocations every day. The terrorists set up these scenes, especially for Russian television,” Lysenko said, claiming Kiev doesn’t use cluster bombs by order of President Petro Poroshenko.
The Human Rights Watch report alleging government use of the weapons — banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which neither Russia nor Ukraine has signed — as recently as last week added to the mounting indications that a Sept. 5 cease-fire is having little effect on the bloody violence that has been consuming eastern Ukraine.
Although Lysenko said no Ukrainian government troops had been killed in the previous 24 hours, he made clear that soldiers and volunteer militia had been engaged by numerous attacks around Donetsk. His claim that many enemy fighters were killed in the sporadic battles appeared to be born out by a report carried by Russia’s TASS news agency quoting the defense ministry of the proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk saying that 12 people had been killed and 27 wounded.
Five of the dead in Donetsk and 19 of the injured were gunmen while the rest were civilians, TASS reported.
“If the Ukrainian authorities talk about the truce, they lie,” the breakaway region’s so-called prime minister, Alexander Zakharchenko, was quoted by TASS as saying.
Lysenko, at his daily briefing in Kiev, was asked whether Russian troops had pulled back from the Ukrainian border, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had ordered. There were 17,600 Russian soldiers along the volatile border, purportedly for military exercises, when the Kremlin chief ordered them back to their permanent bases on Sunday.
“We don’t have confirmation that they have pulled back,” Lysenko said, adding that initial indications of movement turned out to be short-lived. “The majority of the Russian forces are still there.”
The security spokesman also reported that a massive explosion in Donetsk on Monday that blew out windows for miles around a shuttered chemical plant was caused by an attempt by the rebel gunmen to restart production of explosives.
“The explosion occurred because the militants didn’t have the technical capabilities to carry out the production process,” Lysenko said, adding that he didn’t have information on casualties from the blast.
Use of heavy weapons and sophisticated munitions and technology has increased in recent weeks, in spite of the purported cease-fire, during which about 400 people have been killed. Since the fighting began in earnest in April, more than 3,700 have been killed, the United Nations’ human rights agency recently estimated.
Ukrainian authorities have lately accused the separatists of gaining more accurate targets for shelling thanks to the operation of drone aircraft from the Russian Federation to pinpoint targets. The drone sightings, especially over the front-line city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, have strengthened accusations from Ukrainian authorities and their Western allies that Russia is arming and assisting the rebels in their quest to take territory and destabilize Ukraine.
Poroshenko in late August disbanded the dysfunctional parliament that had been left behind when his pro-Russian predecessor, Viktor Yanukovich, fled the country in February in the face of protests calling for greater ties to Europe. Early elections to replace the 450-seat Supreme Council elected two years ago are set for Sunday, and Ukrainian security officials warn they are braced for further attacks on the eve of the parliamentary voting.
Putin seized Ukraine’s Crimea region after Yanukovich fled, claiming Moscow was obliged to step in and protect the largely Russian-inhabited peninsula from those who took power in Kiev. Russia annexed Crimea on March 18, inspiring the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk regions to seize government buildings and try to force similar territorial transfers.

AFP Photo/Anatolii Stepanov

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Russian Aid Convoy Stops Before Border With Ukraine

Russian Aid Convoy Stops Before Border With Ukraine

By Nikolaus Von Twickel, dpa

MOSCOW — A massive Russian aid convoy bound for civilians in eastern Ukraine stopped just short of the border on Thursday, while Kiev accused Moscow of acting unilaterally and sent its own aid convoy to the embattled region.

The almost 280 trucks carrying 2,000 tons of food and medicine were parked on a field near the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a European Pressphoto Agency photographer said.

Kamensk-Shakhtinsky is located some 100 kilometres east of Luhansk, where more than 200,000 people have been cut off from access to water and electricity for 12 days.

It is some 50 kilometres from the Izvarino border post, which is being held by pro-Russian separatists, who also control much of the ensuing road to Luhansk.

Ukraine insists that the convoy can enter the country only after being inspected by its officials and representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should do the distribution.

Both the ICRC and the OSCE said Thursday that Moscow and Kiev must reach an agreement over the convoy before they can become involved.

ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told Swiss news agency sda that the organization was seeking security guarantees from all sides and that it still needs a detailed inventory of the cargo.

An OSCE spokeswoman said that the security watchdog would help only once the Red Cross takes charge, and once Kiev, Moscow, and the Red Cross reach a deal.

Ukraine, which fears the convoy is a pretext for an invasion, initially insisted that Russia hand over the goods to the Red Cross before the border and that the vehicles then pass into government-held territory near the city of Kharkiv.

Kiev complained that Russia was sending aid uncoordinated to a conflict that it had fomented itself.

“Ukraine has not asked Russia for aid. Rather, Ukraine has asked Russia to take away its terrorists, mercenaries, stop sponsoring the fighters, and start recognizing Ukraine’s sovereignty,” said Iryna Herashchenko, an aide to President Petro Poroshenko.

The government in Kiev sent a convoy of its own to Luhansk. Nineteen lorries left Kiev on Thursday, Herashchenko said, adding that a total of 71 vehicles would bring 773 tons of food to the Luhansk region.

Luhansk authorities said many civilians had been killed in artillery fire on Wednesday, but exact casualty figures were not yet available. They said that more than 500 civilians fled the city that day.

The leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the city, Valery Bolotov, resigned unexpectedly on Thursday. He told reporters in Luhansk that he would temporarily step down until he fully recovers from an injury.

Bolotov survived an assassination attempt in April.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, promised that Moscow will do everything to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine.

“The country has sunk into bloody chaos, in a fratricidal conflict,” Putin told Russian lawmakers in Crimea, according to Russian news agencies.

“We will do our best to end this conflict as soon as possible so that the bloodletting in Ukraine ends,” he said.

At the same time, Putin also threatened to terminate international agreements and withdraw Moscow’s participation in international organizations such as the European Court of Human Rights, should they threaten Russia’s national interest.

AFP Photo/Vladimir Baryshev

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Kremlin Backing Rebels In Push For Power-Sharing Reforms

Kremlin Backing Rebels In Push For Power-Sharing Reforms

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

The Kremlin’s top diplomat signaled Tuesday that Russia won’t recognize the results of Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election unless it is preceded by a “national dialogue” on redistributing power to the regions and an end to Ukrainian troops’ efforts to retake eastern territory seized by pro-Russia rebels.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also accused Ukraine’s interim government in Kiev of “fascism” and pointed to Friday’s deadly confrontation in the Black Sea port of Odessa as evidence of the Western-allied leadership’s brutal intentions toward Russians and other minorities.

Lavrov spoke in Vienna during a gathering of the Council of Europe as fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-allied separatists in eastern Ukraine ground to a tense standoff.

An “anti-terrorist operation” launched weeks ago has made only limited progress in containing the pro-Russian gunmen, said to number about 800 in Slovyansk, the main battleground in an arc of towns and cities along Ukraine’s Russian border where militants man roadblocks to repel the Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian officials blamed the slow progress in quelling the Slovyansk insurgency on the separatist gunmen’s use of women and other civilians as human shields to deter forceful moves by the Ukrainian troops to retake the town of 125,000 in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian acting defense minister Mykhailo Koval told a Reuters news agency reporter in Slovyansk that the presence of civilians compelled the government to erect “a gradual blockade, destroying provocateurs and sabotage to prevent injuries among the population.”

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on Tuesday gave updated casualty figures to journalists covering the escalating conflict in the eastern regions. He said 30 pro-Russia militants had been killed in two days of fighting and that four Ukrainian soldiers died in the sporadic battles.

The Ukrainian troops managed to overrun one checkpoint near Slovyansk, breaking the rebels’ lines of communication, The Associated Press reported.

But other reports from the roiling region said the separatists had surrounded an Interior Ministry base in Donetsk and were preventing security forces from reinforcing the government mission to recover control of the militant-occupied towns and cities.

Lavrov’s speech in Vienna suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin will persist with what Kiev’s interim authorities say is a grand scheme to destabilize the east and south of Ukraine and cast doubts on the legitimacy of the presidential election.

Putin has denounced the acting Ukrainian government ministers as “coup-installed” and lacking any authority to make decisions on behalf of the divided country.

Ukraine’s Interim President Oleksandr Turchinov and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk took power after Kremlin-allied President Viktor Yanukovich was toppled in late February after a three-month rebellion spurred by his decision to abandon an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. Yanukovich, rewarded for his loyalty to the Kremlin with a lucrative natural gas discount deal, fled Kiev after agreeing to a power-sharing agreement with the political opposition, which included Turchinov and Yatsenyuk.

Putin sent Russian troops into Ukraine’s Crimea territory days after Yanukovich fled and took refuge in Russia. After the Kremlin forces occupied the Crimean parliament, communications centers and military bases, they backed local nationalists in staging a hastily organized referendum on secession from Ukraine and annexation with Russia.

The Kiev interim government and its Western allies suspect the Kremlin has armed and instigated the pro-Russia rebels occupying about a dozen towns and cities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and has provoked confrontations elsewhere. On Friday, 46 people were killed in Odessa when rival protest marches for and against Ukrainian unity erupted in street fighting and the firebombing of a multistory building where pro-Russia gunmen had taken up positions on the upper floors.

Accounts in Russia’s state-controlled media have portrayed the Odessa violence as evidence of the Kiev government’s threat to Russians and other minorities in Ukraine, a country of 46 million in which about a quarter of the population is Russian or Russian-speaking.

In his address in Vienna, Lavrov branded the Odessa tragedy “a blatant manifestation of fascism.”

“Defenseless people, including women, were burnt alive in the House of Trade Unions in the city of Odessa,” Lavrov said. “Fire was opened at those who tried to survive by jumping out from the windows. They (unity supporters) were scoffing at corpses.”

Russian officials have also described the government’s ongoing operation to rout separatists from Ukrainian government buildings and communications centers as a campaign targeting minority civilians.

“Holding elections at a time when the army is deployed against part of the population is quite unusual,” Lavrov told a news conference, calling on the Kiev leadership to rescind its orders for retaking the occupied eastern and southern venues.

“We are convinced that there is a way out of the crisis,” Lavrov said. “It can be found exclusively on the basis of a national dialogue” between the Kiev government and the pro-Russia rebels.

Yatsenyuk has spoken in favor of constitutional reforms that would cede power from the central government in Kiev to the regions, allowing them to decide their own economic and foreign policies. But Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman told journalists in Kiev on Tuesday that the complicated redrafting of Ukraine’s governing structure won’t be completed and ready for a public vote until late fall at the earliest.

©afp.com / Alexander Khudoteply