Kremlin plan fails to calm Ukraine as NATO backs Kiev
5 Sept 2014 5:32 AM IST
The west believes a rebel advance since last week is the result of an assault by heavily armed Russian troops sent across the border, and has been scrambling to find a response to the biggest confrontation with Moscow since the Berlin Wall fell.
Western states have backed Kiev with words and economic sanctions on Moscow, but have also made clear that they will not fight to protect Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels rose up in two provinces after Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula in March.
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko was invited to meet US President Barack Obama, Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Francois Hollande and other Western leaders at a summit of Nato in Wales hosted by Britain’s David Cameron.
‘To the east, Russia has ripped up the rule book with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state,’ Obama and Cameron wrote in a joint newspaper editorial.
Hollande brought the biggest surprise on the eve of the summit: postponing the delivery of a helicopter carrier warship to Russia, a measure he had long resisted. Moscow accused him of caving in to US political pressure.
‘France’s reputation as a reliable partner that carries out its contractual obligations has been thrown into the furnace of American political ambitions,’ Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
Conflicting signals
The past few days have seen conflicting signals from Moscow. After a week of belligerent statements, President Vladimir Putin unveiled a peace proposal on Wednesday and discussed it with Poroshenko. The Ukrainian president, who has tried to keep diplomatic lines open with the Russian leader, at one point even suggested on his website on that a ceasefire was in the works.
But his prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, dismissed Putin’s proposal, which would require Ukraine to pull its forces out of rebel held territory, as a ‘deception’ and said Putin’s real aim was to ‘destroy Ukraine and restore the Soviet Union.’
Ukraine has previously refused to discuss any political deal with the rebels, calling them international terrorists and proxies of Moscow. But with the hope of swiftly wiping the rebels out having evaporated in the past week, Poroshenko may believe it is now time to accept a Kremlin-backed peace offer.
This week the pro-Russian rebels, who previously insisted on independence, said they would be content with some kind of special status formally in Ukraine. Putin’s peace offer would effectively keep them in control of territory that accounts for a tenth of Ukraine’s population and a much of its industry.
Western states have backed Kiev with words and economic sanctions on Moscow, but have also made clear that they will not fight to protect Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels rose up in two provinces after Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula in March.
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko was invited to meet US President Barack Obama, Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Francois Hollande and other Western leaders at a summit of Nato in Wales hosted by Britain’s David Cameron.
‘To the east, Russia has ripped up the rule book with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state,’ Obama and Cameron wrote in a joint newspaper editorial.
Hollande brought the biggest surprise on the eve of the summit: postponing the delivery of a helicopter carrier warship to Russia, a measure he had long resisted. Moscow accused him of caving in to US political pressure.
‘France’s reputation as a reliable partner that carries out its contractual obligations has been thrown into the furnace of American political ambitions,’ Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.
Conflicting signals
The past few days have seen conflicting signals from Moscow. After a week of belligerent statements, President Vladimir Putin unveiled a peace proposal on Wednesday and discussed it with Poroshenko. The Ukrainian president, who has tried to keep diplomatic lines open with the Russian leader, at one point even suggested on his website on that a ceasefire was in the works.
But his prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, dismissed Putin’s proposal, which would require Ukraine to pull its forces out of rebel held territory, as a ‘deception’ and said Putin’s real aim was to ‘destroy Ukraine and restore the Soviet Union.’
Ukraine has previously refused to discuss any political deal with the rebels, calling them international terrorists and proxies of Moscow. But with the hope of swiftly wiping the rebels out having evaporated in the past week, Poroshenko may believe it is now time to accept a Kremlin-backed peace offer.
This week the pro-Russian rebels, who previously insisted on independence, said they would be content with some kind of special status formally in Ukraine. Putin’s peace offer would effectively keep them in control of territory that accounts for a tenth of Ukraine’s population and a much of its industry.
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