Ukraine said yesterday that pro-Russian militants had freed 56 “hostages” after US and EU diplomats set up their first direct talks with Moscow and Kiev aimed at resolving the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.
Ukraine’s SBU security service said the group walked free from its headquarters in Lugansk after separatists seized the building and other key government offices at the weekend in the mainly Russian-speaking eastern industrial heartland.
The separatist raids have drawn Western charges that Russia — its troops already massed along Ukraine’s border in response to its ouster of a Moscow-backed regime — is backing the separatists and plotting to grab more territory after annexing Crimea last month.
However, US and EU diplomats also crucially agreed with Moscow that it is time to de-escalate the worst European security crisis in decades by setting up a four-way round of negotiations involving Kiev next week.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton’s office confirmed she would meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, along with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya in one of the European capitals.
A source in the Russian foreign ministry told Moscow’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency the talks would probably be held at the end of the week.
The breakthrough agreement was reached after hundreds of irate activists occupied a series of strategic buildings in the east at the weekend and declared independence for the bustling region of Donetsk.
Ukraine’s embattled leaders poured extra security forces into the flashpoint regions and regained control of the government seat in Kharkiv on Tuesday after a night of violence, which included Molotov cocktails and stun grenades being hurled at police.
However, the militants remain holed up behind barricades of razor wire and old tires in the administration building in Donetsk and the SBU headquarters in Lugansk — the site of the alleged hostage taking.
The SBU had accused the Kalashnikov-wielding separatists of rigging the building with explosives and refusing to let 60 people already inside “leave the building and return home.”
The claim sparked fears that Kiev’s Western-backed leaders had run out of patience and were preparing to storm the occupied offices after labeling the separatists “terrorists,” but the SBU said yesterday that 56 people had walked free thanks to two rounds of negotiations led by unidentified lawmakers from Ukraine’s parliament.
The agency did not specify how many people were still allegedly being held against their will.
“No one was injured,” the SBU said in a statement. “In order to minimize the risks to the lives and safety of citizens, the negotiations process is continuing.”
However, Ukrainian Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov stressed that the “anti-terrorist operation” in cities along Russia’s border continued.
“We have two options: political — in other words negotiations — or the use of force,” Avakov told reporters. “I think that a resolution to this crisis will be found within the next 48 hours.”
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
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One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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