Russia and Ukraine to discuss peace plan

Talks on a Ukraine peace initiative will continue with a telephone call tomorrow between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his counterpart in Kiev to discuss a proposal to end the fighting.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande will also take part in the four-way telephone negotiations, as they try to halt the spiralling conflict,

Their talks with Mr Putin ended early today, and the planned discussions tomorrow involving Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko suggested a ceasefire proposal was still on the table, although there was no firm announcement of progress.

Even getting the arms to fall silent would be a significant diplomatic breakthrough.

The resurgent fighting has fuelled fears the conflict is threatening Europe’s overall security and has prompted the US to consider giving lethal weapons to Ukraine, an option opposed by European nations.

Ms Merkel and Mr Hollande went to Moscow yesterday on the second leg of their hastily arranged peace mission, after meeting Mr Poroshenko the previous day in Kiev.

The contents of their proposal have not been revealed, but it is aimed at salvaging a peace plan agreed to in September in Minsk, Belarus.

Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said efforts were moving forward.

“Work is currently under way on drafting the text of a possible joint document on the implementation of the Minsk agreement, which would include the proposals made by the president of Ukraine and President Putin,” he said after the talks in the Kremlin ended.

He said Ms Merkel, Mr Putin, Mr Hollande and Mr Poroshenko would hold discussions by telephone tomorrow. A similar four-party conversation took place in mid-December, before the recent upsurge in fighting.

The urgent diplomacy comes as Western anxiety over the conflict grows and sanctions bite down ever harder on Russia’s economy.

More than 5,300 people have been killed since fighting began in April, according to a UN tally, and the bloodshed has markedly increased over the past two weeks.

In Washington, the meeting was viewed with scepticism.

“I’m not going to say it’s a positive sign that they’re listening,” state department spokeswoman Marie Harf said of Russia. “They’ve been listening. They just haven’t been acting.”

The US and other Western countries contend Russia has supplied troops and equipment to the separatists in eastern Ukraine who have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since April. Russia denies the claims.

A ceasefire deal was reached in September, but both sides have repeatedly violated it and the fighting has risen sharply in the past two weeks.

“Everyone is aware that the first step must be the ceasefire, but that it cannot suffice. We must seek a global solution,” Mr Hollande said before heading to Moscow.

The senior Nato commander, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said on Thursday that Russia continues to supply the separatists with heavy, state-of-the-art weapons, air defences and fighters.

Ms Merkel said she and Mr Hollande would use “all our power with direct visits to Kiev and to Moscow today to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible and to fill the Minsk agreement with life”.

She added: “We are convinced that there’s no military solution to this conflict. But we also know that it’s completely open whether we will manage to achieve a ceasefire with these talks.”

In Brussels, US vice president Joe Biden questioned Mr Putin’s willingness to seek peace.

He said Mr Putin “continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside and he absolutely ignores every agreement that his country has signed in the past and that he has signed”.

Meanwhile, on the ground in eastern Ukraine, the rebels and the Ukrainian authorities briefly halted hostilities yesterday to evacuate civilians from Debaltseve, a besieged key railway hub between the two main rebel-controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Dozens of buses drove in from both rebel-held and government territory to carry away residents who had been trapped in the crossfire without power, heat or running water for two weeks.

Authorities expected to evacuate about 1,000 civilians from the town, offering them the choice of going to either rebel- or government-controlled territory.

One rebel spokeswoman, however, said only about 50 people left on the rebels’ 20-odd buses.

Several residents did not know the evacuation was taking place until the buses arrived and could not bring family members to the collection point in time.

Many looked exhausted. Bags of rice, noodles and canned goods were handed out to those staying in the town, and arguments erupted in the food queue. One woman noticed that some of the canned goods had expired years ago.

To the west, artillery duels between the rebels and government forces rumbled through Donetsk, where one disenchanted resident had little hope for the new European peace initiative.

“I don’t expect anything. I’m so tired of this. It has been going on for so long,” said pensioner Esfira Papunova.