Putin’s plans for ceasefire dismissed by Ukraine PM
After speaking to Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko by phone, Putin said he believed Kiev and pro-Russian separatists could reach agreement at talks in Minsk tomorrow.
“Our views on the way to resolve the conflict, as it seemed to me, are very close,” Putin told reporters during a visit to the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, describing the seven steps he had put forward to secure a resolution to the crisis.
They included separatists halting offensive operations, Ukrainian forces pulling back, an end to Ukrainian air strikes, the creation of humanitarian aid corridors, the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure, and prisoner exchanges.
Poroshenko indicated the conversation with Putin had injected some momentum into efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 2,600 people since April, saying he hoped the “peace process will finally begin” at Friday’s talks and that he and Putin had a “mutual understanding” on steps towards peace.
But prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk dismissed the plan as a “deception” on the eve of a NATO summit that will discuss Ukraine, adding in a statement: “The real plan of Putin is to destroy Ukraine and to restore the Soviet Union.”
US President Barack Obama also voiced caution, saying the conflict could end only if Russia stopped supplying the rebels with weapons and soldiers, a charge Moscow has denied.
Visiting the former Soviet republic of Estonia, now in NATO and the EU, Obama said previous ceasefires had not worked “either because Russia has not been serious about it or it’s pretended that it’s not controlling the separatists”.
In a further sign of the West’s growing mistrust and disapproval of Moscow, France said it would not go ahead with the planned delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia.
Moscow has said scrapping the €1.2bn deal would harm France more than Russia and the defence ministry described the decision as “no tragedy”, but the move is likely to anger the Kremlin and underlines Russia’s growing isolation over events in Ukraine.
The EU, which imposed limited economic sanctions on Russia, could agree new moves against Moscow tomorrow, hitting the defence and finance sectors.
French President François Hollande’s office said he had reached his decision “despite the prospect of a ceasefire, which has yet to be confirmed and put in place”.
The ceasefire proposals had little immediate impact on the ground. Shelling of the rebel-held Donetsk continued and smoke poured up from the area that includes the city’s airport.
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