Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine.
“Russia, for its part, will do everything for this peace process,” Putin said early today after meeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at a summit in Minsk. “In our opinion, it should start as soon as possible.”
Poroshenko said on Twitter after the talks that Russia backed a Ukrainian peace strategy to stem fighting between the army and pro-Russian insurgents in
the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. While Putin didn’t mention the proposal, Poroshenko told reporters a “road map” would be drawn up and a three-way contact group involving the European Union would work toward a truce.
The Ukrainian leader arrived in the Belarus capital pledging to seek a peaceful resolution to five months of unrest that’s sparked the worst standoff between Russia and its former Cold War foes in two decades and unleashed sanctions on both sides. Ukraine blames its neighbor for stoking the insurgency with manpower and weapons, an allegation Russia denies.
“Any dialogue is a good thing, and they’ve agreed to additional meetings,” Yevgeny Minchenko, head of the Moscow-based International Institute for Political Expertise, said by phone. “However, it’s difficult to imagine any deal could be made in the current environment.”
Market Reaction
Ukrainian government bonds weakened for a sixth day, lifting the yield on the dollar note due in July 2017 by 31 basis points to 10.86 percent at 1:13 p.m. in Kiev. Russia’s Micex (INDEXCF) stock index rose 0.6 percent.Ukraine’s military said today that its forces killed 225 rebels and destroyed three tanks over the past 24 hours. There was no independent confirmation. Government troops are fighting to maintain control of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, and two other towns, the military press service said on Facebook.
Thirteen government soldiers were killed and 36 wounded in the past day, a military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said at a briefing in Kiev.
He said government forces were being shelled “intensively” from Russian territory and were under constant attack from insurgents around Mariupol and Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov coast, close to the Russian border. Russian and rebel forces occupied seven villages north of Novoazovsk, Lysenko said.
Polish Intelligence
“Regular Russian units are operating in eastern Ukraine,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament in Warsaw today, citing information from the country’s intelligence services and NATO.“Although breakthrough agreements are still some time away, we expect to see more progress in the political, military and economic/trade areas in the next few weeks,” Vladimir Tikhomirov, the chief economist at BCS Financial Group in Moscow, said in a note to investors. “With the negotiation process now started, a new wave of Russia-West confrontations has become less likely -– indeed, both sides clearly seem to be looking for an acceptable way to de-escalate relations and to end the crisis.”
Putin said that no talks were held on conditions for a cease-fire in Ukraine because Russia isn’t a party to the conflict. Even so, Russia’s concerns “were heard” in Minsk and a working group will intensify efforts to stem the crisis, he said. The Russian leader said he expects an agreement on further humanitarian supplies to Ukraine, which was angered by what it said was an unauthorized aid convoy of hundreds of Russian trucks to Luhansk last week.
Contact Group
Poroshenko told reporters that attempts would be made to hold talks about a cease-fire “as soon as possible” though a trilateral contact group involving Ukraine, Russia and the EU. A truce would then be monitored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, he said.Ukraine and Russia are planning military consultations, Russia’s Interfax news service cited Poroshenko as saying.
Still, “Ukrainian public opinion is not ready for the compromises any political deal would require” as “emotions are running too high,” Minchenko said. “Putin is an autonomous actor, and Russia will follow whatever decision he makes. Poroshenko has many more groups he needs to answer to, which makes giving concessions much more difficult.”
Paratrooper Video
Ukraine released video footage yesterday of men in military fatigues that it said were Russian paratroopers captured when an armored column crossed the border. One, identified as Sergey Smirnov, said they were ordered to cover up Russian markings on their vehicles and paint on white circles before being sent to Ukraine without documents and mobile phones.Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news service cited an unidentified Defense Ministry official as saying that troops patrolling the border crossed into Ukraine accidentally and didn’t resist when detained.
Putin said Ukrainian servicemen had also strayed at times into Russian territory and, as on those occasions, he hoped this latest incident wouldn’t be “a problem.”
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