Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko yesterday faced pressure to negotiate with top rebel commanders after a surprise U-turn saw pro-Russian insurgents agree to a truce and talks on ending their uprising.
In an announcement that came after talks with Russia’s ambassador to Kiev and an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe envoy, the head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic on Monday said he was dropping his demand for immediate Ukrainian troop withdrawal.
“We hope that during the period in which both sides halt fire, we will be able to agree and begin consultations about holding negotiations about a peaceful settlement to the conflict,” Oleksandr Borodai said.
Photo: AFP
The move put pressure on the Western-backed Poroshenko because the 48-year-old had previously ruled out negotiating with rebels directly implicated in the violence that has left nearly 400 dead in 11 weeks in Ukraine’s Russified rustbelt.
Poroshenko ordered a one-week unilateral ceasefire on Friday that was accompanied by a blueprint for ending the 11-week uprising.
However, he also said that he would never talk directly to rebels with “blood on their hands” or those implicated in “murder and torture.”
Poroshenko did not spell out whom he was excluding.
The Russian-border regions of Donetsk and Lugansk — home to 7 million people, as well as Ukraine’s crucial coal and metals industry — were overrun in early April by gunmen who proclaimed their independence from Kiev last month.
The rebel commanders in Lugansk have not yet publicly joined Borodai’s peace overture and the Ukrainian military reported more violence overnight.
Vladyslav Seleznyov, spokesman of Ukraine’s “anti-terrorist operation” said gunmen continued attacking soldiers in the rebel stronghold of Slavyansk and a nearby town.
Poroshenko has been pressing world leaders to follow through with their threat to unleash devastating economic sanctions against Moscow should Russian President Vladimir Putin fail to immediately end his perceived military and diplomatic backing for the insurgents.
Poroshenko is to sign a trade pact with the EU on Friday that crowns his May 25 election promise to make the move West-ward — which is strongly resisted by Russia and lies at the heart of the crisis.
Poroshenko’s office said he told US Vice President Joe Biden that the ceasefire “must be accompanied by the release of hostages and a sealing of the border to halt the entry into Ukraine from Russia of mercenaries, weapons and drugs.”
Russian news agencies yesterday reported that Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian president wrote to the head of the upper house of parliament asking that his March 1 request for approval of the use of force in Ukraine be withdrawn, be withdrawn.
Additional reporting by AP
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