By NATALIYA VASILYEVA and PETER LEONARD
In Minsk the presidents of the three member states of the Customs Union, three EU envoys and the president of Ukraine Poroshenko met in Minsk.
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Ukraine's president said Wednesday that Vladimir Putin accepts the principles of a peace plan for Ukraine but the Russian leader insisted that only Kiev can reach a cease-fire deal with the pro-Moscow separatists.
Following meetings between Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that included a one-on-one session that stretched into the night, there was no indication of a quick end to the fighting that has engulfed eastern Ukraine.
"This is not our business," Putin said of any cease-fire plan. "This is Ukraine's business."
Russia "can only help to create an atmosphere of trust for this important and necessary process," Putin said. "We in Russia cannot talk about any conditions for the cease-fire, about any agreements between Kiev, Donetsk, Luhansk," the two rebel regions.
Although Poroshenko told reporters that he had secured support for a peace plan from leaders who attended the summit and Putin called the sessions "overall positive," the first substantial encounter between the two leaders did not produce a breakthrough in efforts to end the fighting.
If anything, there were signs of spreading violence. For the past two days, heavy shelling hit an area of southeast Ukraine that had escaped the intense fighting of recent weeks, and Ukrainian officials said the pro-Russia separatists it has been battling were aiming to open a new front.
A column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles crossed into Ukraine on Monday north of Novoazovsk. Some vehicles fly rebel flags but some have no insignia. (Novoazovsk approaches, Aug 25 2014)
The meeting in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, also came on the same day that Ukraine said it captured 10 Russian soldiers who had come over the border.
Putin did not directly address the allegation but appeared to tacitly recognize it and suggested that the soldiers simply had become lost.
"I haven't received a report from the defense ministry and the general staff yet, but the first thing I have heard is that that they were patrolling the border and may have found themselves on the Ukrainian territory," Putin said.
Shortly after becoming president in June, Poroshenko put forth a peace plan that included an amnesty for those not accused of serious crimes and called for some decentralization of power to the region.
Early Wednesday, he said "I can say that the logic of this peaceful plan was finally supported by all, without exclusion, of the heads of state," according to the Interfax news agency.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gets in a car upon arrival in Minsk, Belarus on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014.
However, Putin said there was no specific talk about implementing a cease-fire because Russia is not a party to the conflict. Moscow is accused by Kiev and the West of arming and supporting the rebels — a charge the Kremlin denies — and it is not clear how much it is willing or able to try to pressure them into ending the fighting.
Besides their face-to-face talks, Putin and Poroshenko also met Tuesday with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus and top European Union officials. The presence of the other two presidents highlighted one of the difficult issues of Ukraine-Russia tensions: Their countries are part of a trade bloc with Russia, and Moscow fears that Poroshenko's determination to pursue closer ties with the EU will hurt Russia's economy.
Controversy over whether Ukraine would join the trade bloc was at the heart of the events that set off Ukraine's crisis. Former president Viktor Yanukovych's decision to pursue closer ties with Russia set off protests that eventually drove him from power. After his ouster, the Crimean peninsula, overwhelmingly ethnic Russian, was annexed by Moscow in March and the next month saw the beginning of a separatist rebellion in two eastern Ukrainian regions that are heavily ethnic Russian.
The battle to put down that rebellion, which Kiev and Western countries say gets equipment, fighters and other support from Russia, has left more than 2,000 civilians and 700 Ukrainian troops dead.
In his opening statement at Tuesday's meetings, Putin argued that Ukraine's decision to sign an association agreement with the 28-nation EU would lead to huge losses for Russia, which would then be forced to protect its economy.
Russian President Putin stated that Ukraine's transition to EU trade will cost Russia €165bn.
Putin also said the conflict "could not be solved by further escalation of the military scenario without taking into account the vital interests of the southeast of the country and without a peaceful dialogue of its representatives."
Ukraine wants the rebels to hand back the territory they have captured in eastern Ukraine, while Putin wants to retain some sort of leverage over the mostly Russian-speaking region so Ukraine does not join NATO or the European Union.
Russia has called frequently for Ukraine to federalize — devolving wide powers to the regions from the central government in Kiev. Poroshenko has resisted that move but he could agree to give the regions some expanded powers. Poroshenko also has spoken against holding a referendum on Ukraine's joining NATO.
Putin has so far ignored requests from the rebels to be annexed by Russia, unlike in March, when he annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. But Associated Press journalists on the border have seen the rebels with a wide range of unmarked military equipment — including tanks, Buk missile launchers and armored personnel carriers — and have run into many Russians among the rebel fighters.
Ukraine security forces reacted quickly and stoped Russian breach to Novoazovsk and Mariupol. Many Russian armoured vehicles were destroyed during fierce fighting.
Ukraine's anti-rebel operation said on its Facebook page that 10 soldiers from a Russian paratrooper division were captured Monday around Amvrosiivka, a town near the Russian border.
Ukraine's posting included videos of five of the men. One, who identified himself as Sergei Smirnov, said they were not told anything about their mission.
"We were just traveling through fields and then we stopped in the middle of the field and the BMP2 (armored vehicle) broke down," he said.
Asked if he knew they were on Ukrainian territory, he said: "When we got into the village we saw a tank with Ukrainian flag. Then we understood." He said they then came under fire.
Russian news agencies quoted an unidentified official in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying the soldiers were patrolling the border and probably crossed it inadvertently.
Meanwhile, towering columns of smoke rose Tuesday from outside a city in Ukraine's far southeast after what residents said was a heavy artillery barrage, and Ukraine accused the separatists and Russia of trying to expand the conflict.
It was the second straight day that attacks were reported in the vicinity of Novoazovsk, which is in eastern Ukraine's separatist Donetsk region but previously had seen little fighting.
Novoazovsk lies on the Azov Sea on the road that runs from Russia to the major Ukrainian port of Mariupol and west to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia.
Ukraine said a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles crossed into Ukraine on Monday north of Novoazovsk, raising the possibility that pro-Russia separatists were aiming to take control of a strip of land that would link up Russia with Crimea.
In Kiev, Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Council, blamed the shelling Tuesday on "Russian mercenaries."
"Russia is trying from its side to open a new front," Lysenko told reporters.
Residents in Novoazovsk, some hastily packing up in order to flee, told the AP it was not clear what direction the firing had come from Tuesday.
Lysenko said there were enough forces and equipment in Mariupol to defend the city of more than 450,000. Russia reportedly has tens of thousands of troops positioned in areas near the Ukrainian border, leading to persistent concerns that Moscow could be preparing an invasion.
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Leonard reported from Novoazovsk, Ukraine. Jim Heintz in Kiev, Ukraine, Laura Mills and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.
EurActiv: 27. August 2014
Putin and Poroshenko shake hands, but discord prevails
The meeting between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko in Minsk Tuesday (26 August) will be remembered by their handshake. But there was no sign of progress on the fundamental point of disagreement: Ukraine's charges that Moscow is sending arms and fighters to help Ukrainian rebels, and Russia's adamant denials.
After late-night negotiations Poroshenko promised to work on an urgent ceasefire plan to defuse the separatist conflict in the east of his former Soviet republic.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gets traditional salt and bread upon arrival in Minsk, Belarus upon his arrival at an airport outside Minsk August 26, 2014
The first talks between the two leaders since June were described by Putin as positive, but he said it was not for Russia to get into the details of truce terms between the Kyiv government and two eastern regions of Ukraine, in rebellion.
"We didn't substantively discuss that, and we, Russia, can't substantively discuss conditions of a ceasefire, of agreements between Kyiv, Donetsk and Luhansk. That's not our business, it's up to Ukraine itself," he told reporters early today (27 August).
"We can only contribute to create a situation of trust for a possible, and in my view, extremely necessary, negotiation process."
After two hours of one-to-one talks which he described as "very tough and complex", Poroshenko told reporters: "A roadmap will be prepared in order to achieve as soon as possible a ceasefire regime which absolutely must be bilateral in character."
Despite the positive tone, it remained unclear how the rebels would respond to the idea of a ceasefire, how soon it could be agreed on, and how long it might hold.
With Putin insisting the details were an internal matter for Kyiv, there was no sign of progress on a fundamental point of disagreement: Ukraine's charges that Moscow is sending arms and fighters to help the rebels, and Russia's adamant denials.
The leaders shook hands at the start of their meeting in the Belarussian capital Minsk just hours after Kyiv said it had captured Russian soldiers on a "special mission" on Ukrainian territory.
Responding to a video of the detained servicemen, a Russian defence ministry source told Russian news agencies that they had crossed the border by mistake. But Ukraine's military spokesman dismissed that, mocking the idea that "the paratroopers got lost like Little Red Riding Hood in the forest".
Tit-for-that sanctions
The Minsk talks, preceded by six hours of wider negotiations with top EU officials and the presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan, were aimed at ending five months of conflict that has heightened tensions between Russia and NATO, prompting both to step up military manoeuvres.
A United Nations report obtained by Reuters said more than 2,200 people have been killed, not including the 298 passengers and crew who died when a Malaysian airliner was shot down over rebel-held territory in July.
The crisis has prompted the United States and EU to slap sanctions on Russia, drawing retaliation from Moscow in a trade battle that threatens to push Russia into recession and snuff out economic recovery in Europe.
"We all wanted a breakthrough," President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus told reporters after the multilateral part of the talks had finished.
"But the very fact of holding the meeting today is already a success, undoubtedly," he said. "The talks were difficult. The sides' positions differ, sometimes fundamentally [...] Everybody agreed on the need to de-escalate and free hostages."
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus had meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters: "It was cordial but positive. There was a sense in which the onus was on everyone to see if they could do their best to try to resolve this."
In a televised statement at the start of the talks, Putin urged Poroshenko not to step up his offensive against the pro-Moscow rebels, and threatened to slap economic penalties on Kyiv if it ratifies a trade accord with the European Union that he said would squeeze Russian goods out of the Ukrainian market.
He said the Russian economy could lose about 100 billion roubles (€2.1 billion) if European goods flooded in via Ukraine after Kyiv signed the agreement with the EU in June. Moscow would retaliate with trade measures if that were to happen.
But striking a positive note after the meetings, Putin said the two presidents agreed to talks on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine.
"We need to resume our energy dialogue, including about gas problems. Sincerely speaking, this is a complicated issue, it has reached a dead end, but we still need to talk about it. We agreed to resume these consultations," he said.
Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in Minsk that three-way gas consultations would take place in Moscow on 29 August between Russia, Ukraine and the EU. According to the website of the Ukrainian President negotiations on energy issues with participation of Ministers of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine, Russia and the EU would be held on 6 September.
The last such talks broke down in June, prompting Russia's Gazprom to sever supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over pricing and debt.
Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas.
"Cannon fodder"
In his opening comments, Poroshenko demanded a halt to arms shipments from Russia to the separatist fighters. He defended a peace plan he issued in June, when the rebels in the southeast Donbass region scorned his invitation to lay down their arms and leave by a safe corridor.
"The prime condition for a stabilisation of the situation in Donbass is the establishment of effective control over the Russian-Ukrainian border. It is vital to do everything to stop deliveries of equipment and arms to the fighters," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, a day after announcing it had detained 10 Russian paratroopers who crossed the border in a column of armed infantry vehicles, Ukraine released video of the captive soldiers.
In footage posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian government's "anti-terrorist operation", the men were shown dressed in camouflage fatigues.
"I did not see where we crossed the border. They just told us we were going on a 70 km (45-mile) march over three days," said a man who gave his name as Ivan Milchakov and said he was from a paratroop regiment based in the Russian town of Kostroma.
"Everything is different here, not like they show it on television. We've come as cannon fodder," he said in the video.
Russian news agencies quoted a defence ministry source as confirming that Russian servicemen had crossed into Ukraine, but said they did so inadvertently.
"The soldiers really did participate in a patrol of a section of the Russian-Ukrainian border, crossed it by accident on an unmarked section, and as far as we understand showed no resistance to the armed forces of Ukraine when they were detained," the source said.
Ukraine rejected that explanation.
"This wasn't a mistake, but a special mission they were carrying out," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.
RIA news agency later quoted Lysenko as saying the men were not prisoners of war, but had been detained for crossing the border illegally and helping and taking part in a "terrorist organisation", the government's description of the separatists.
Putin appeared to play down the incident, stating "I hope in this case there won't be any problems with the Ukrainian side."
New talks in Ankara?
According to Ukrainian Pravda, who quotes two independent sources from the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Russia, Poroshenko and Putin may meet again on 28 August in Ankara.
The two heads of state are expected to attend the inauguration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a bilateral meeting is reportedly in preparation.
TIMELINE:
28 Aug.: Possible new meeting between Putin and Poroshenko in Ankara;
29 Aug.: Trilateral gas consultations in Moscow;
30 Aug.: EU leaders hold summit in Brussels.
30 Aug.: Poroshenko to meet with EU leaders in Brussels;
4-5 Sept.: Poroshenko to attend NATO summit in Cardiff;
6 Sept.: Trilateral meeting of the ministers of energy.
Ukrainian border guards patrol near the small Ukrainian city of Novoazovsk, Donetsk oblast on the border withthe Russian Federation on Aug. 15, 2014.
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