New president Poroshenko plotting path to peace
KYIV — Ukraine’s new leader, Petro Poroshenko, has agreed to start talks with an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending separatist violence in the former Soviet republic’s easternmost regions.
Poroshenko took the oath of office as Ukraine’s president Saturday, a day after he discussed with Putin his proposals for the first steps toward a ceasefire. In his inauguration speech, he presented a plan to bring peace to the nation after more than six months of unrest that’s pitted the U.S. and Europe against Russia in the worst standoff since the Cold War.
“I know that peace is the most important thing that Ukrainian people desire now,” Poroshenko, 48, said.
Poroshenko, switching between languages to address Russian speakers in their mother tongue, pledged to “preserve and strengthen Ukrainian unity and ensure lasting peace” in the country ravaged by separatist violence. The billionaire, who said he became a grandfather for the first time Saturday, vowed to steer the former Soviet republic toward closer ties with the European Union, create jobs and stamp out corruption.
“There’s a window for peace now, but it won’t stay indefinitely,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said at a meeting with Poroshenko in Kyiv. “We look for Mr. Putin to meet his end of the commitments and deliver on the pledge to actually work with your government.”
After his May 25 landslide election victory, Poroshenko’s ability to repair relations with the country’s eastern neighbour will be key to his success in pacifying Ukraine’s easternmost regions, where the military is battling a separatist insurgency. Ukraine is awaiting the arrival of Putin’s envoy for talks, Andriy Zhigulin, Poroshenko’s spokesman, said Sunday by phone.
Poroshenko’s speech addressed “all the pressing issues,” said Yuriy Yakymenko, head of political research at Kyiv’s Razumkov Center. “The plan of action proposed to stabilize the internal Ukrainian situation is entirely adequate and realistic. Poroshenko clearly prioritized and targeted foreign policy. ”Poroshenko promised safe corridors for “Russian mercenaries” to leave the country and pledged an amnesty for those who didn’t kill servicemen or civilians. The president said he’ll present a plan to decentralize power and urged early parliamentary elections. He also vowed to crush the insurgency, protect Ukraine as a “unitary state,” while guaranteeing the rights of Russian speakers.
“The head of state has a wide spectrum of different instruments to ensure territorial integrity and peace,” Poroshenko said. “There will be no shortage of authority and decisiveness. I do not seek revenge.”
Pro- Russian separatist leaders denounced Poroshenko, with Alexander Boroday, leader of the selfproclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, saying he’s the “president of another country,” according to the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news service.
Poroshenko’s remarks “look hopeful” and Russia will continue to have working relations with Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, Russia’s ambassador in Kyiv, said Saturday, RIA reported. The issue of Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in March, will be peripheral while the two parties work to restore links, Zurabov said.
Putin has ordered security services to enforce the border with Ukraine, according to RIA.
The two countries earlier agreed to jointly close sections of the border in the conflict regions, Poroshenko said Friday in a statement. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it received notification by the authorities in Kyiv of eight checkpoints having been shut.