Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian militias were due yesterday to pull back their troops from a demilitarized zone created under a new peace plan agreed in marathon overnight talks.
A nine-point agreement thrashed out in the early hours yesterday in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, also requires the withdrawal of all “mercenaries” from the conflict zone and an immediate end to hostilities.
However, Russia appeared ready to keep up the pressure on its Westward-leaning neighbor by sending in a new 30-truck convoy it said was carrying aid for the rebel-held city of Donetsk, but that Ukraine never approved.
Photo: EPA
Former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma — who is representing Kiev in the stuttering efforts to resolve the five-month conflict — said the agreement rested on the creation of a 30km buffer zone.
Forces from both sides are required to retreat 15km from current frontlines within 24 hours of the signing of the accord and allow monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe into the area to make sure the truce holds.
The areas under rebel control would be left open to their administration under a temporary self-rule plan adopted by lawmakers in Kiev on Tuesday.
The Minsk pact — also signed by Moscow’s ambassador to Kiev and the self-proclaimed “prime ministers” of the rebel-run regions of Donetsk and Lugansk — aims to shore up a ceasefire deal agreed two weeks ago.
The agreement crucially requires both sides to immediately withdraw “foreign mercenaries” from the conflict zone in industrial eastern Ukraine.
Kiev and Western allies accuse Russia of clandestinely slipping at least 1,000 paratroopers into eastern Ukraine to help the guerrillas mount a surprise counteroffensive late last month.
The Kremlin denies ordering soldiers into Ukraine. However, Moscow’s Kiev envoy Mikhail Zurabov told Russian media after the signing of the Minsk deal that both sides appeared to have hired foreign mercenaries.
The sides agreed to leave the most divisive political issues for future negotiation in order to get the terms of the truce worked out first.
Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said that the explosive question of the status of rebel-held Donetsk and Lugansk was not discussed in Minsk by mutual consent.
“We each have our own understanding of [Kiev’s] law on special status,” Russian media quoted Zakharchenko as saying.
“These are issues for future negotiations that will last another year,” he added.
The elusive ultimate goal is to find a lasting solution to a conflict that has claimed nearly 3,000 lives and stoked Western alarm about Russia’s territorial ambitions.
The talks came in the wake of a peace overture by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that included a limited self-rule offer for separatist-controled areas in the east and an amnesty for all fighters.
The ceasefire has helped calm the worst fighting, but continues to be regularly broken around Donetsk — the scene of almost daily shelling on the city’s outskirts — and other disputed parts of the Russian-speaking industrial heartland.
Rebel representatives in the city of nearly 1 million — now with neighborhoods abandoned by families devastated by constant shelling and food shortages — said they had received a Russian humanitarian convoy overnight.
The press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said the volume of aid “was very large,” but provided few other details.
Ukraine was still set to receive an important boost from the 28-member NATO military alliance when its defense chiefs gathered yesterday in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for a three-day meeting.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS