Ukraine peace bid ‘is the last-ditch chance to avoid all-out war’ says Hollande
Peace deal put to nation’s leaders amid shelling by pro-Russia separatists
A LAST-DITCH attempt to bring peace to eastern Ukraine will be put to the country’s leaders today amid warnings that failure to reach a settlement could lead to all-out war.
More than 5,300 people have been killed since the conflict began in April and around a million more have been forced to leave their homes to escape the fighting.
Last night, pro-Russian separatists intensified their shelling of government positions on all front lines and appeared to be massing forces for new attacks on the key railway town of Debaltseve and the coastal city of Mariupol, according to the Ukrainian military authorities.
Five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 26 wounded during a 24-hour period, a spokesman told a briefing in the capital, Kiev.
Meanwhile, the centre of the main regional city of Donetsk echoed with the sound of artillery blasts. An official there said: ‘The situation is tense and we can hear powerful artillery fire but we have no immediate information about casualties and damage.’
In a dramatic intervention last night, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the crisis in his country would remain unresolved unless it received political, economic and military support from allies in Europe and beyond.
In an emotional plea at a security conference in Munich, he held up the red passports of Russian soldiers he said had been found on Ukrainian territory, calling them the ‘best evidence’ for the presence of foreign troops in his country.
The latest peace plan was drawn up by France and Germany during four hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Friday. Details remained sketchy last night but French President François Hollande said that one proposal was for a broader demilitarised zone and greater autonomy for eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists are trying to establish a break-away state free from Kiev’s control.
Mr Hollande said the current negotiations were a last chance ‘because if we are not able to reach, not a compromise but a durable peace accord, we perfectly know the scenario: it has one name, it is called war’.
America and Britain have accused Russia of supplying troops and military equipment to the separatists.
Mr Putin denies the claim and says the conflict is being fuelled by Western interference.
The fighting has prompted Wash- ington to consider giving lethal weapons to the Ukrainian government, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said this might make things worse.
Mr Poroshenko said Ukraine stood ready for a ‘comprehensive and immediate ceasefire’ and Russia should be too.
He indicated he did not want any peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine, saying they would not be needed if foreign fighters were withdrawn and the Ukraine-Russia border sealed. Then, he said, there would be ‘peace and stability in Ukraine within a couple of weeks’.
‘There is no temporary solution – this conflict must be resolved, not frozen,’ he said, alluding to longtime conflicts involving breakaway regions in Georgia and Moldova.
Mr Putin said yesterday: ‘We don’t intend to war with anyone. We intend to cooperate with all.’
But he complained of ‘attempts to hold back our development by various means’.
Russia is suffering increasingly from Western sanctions imposed as a result of the conflict.
‘The conflict must be resolved, not frozen’