Tensions soar over Ukraine
KIEV — German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Kiev Saturday for crisis talks with Ukraine's pro-Western leaders, as a controversial aid convoy from Moscow began crossing back from the war-torn east of the country to Russia.
The West had demanded that Russia withdraw its disputed trucks after the Kremlin unilaterally sent them to the insurgent stronghold of Lugansk on Friday in a move Kiev decried as an "invasion".
An observer for the Or- ganisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe at the border told AFP that some of the white lorries had returned to Russia but could not specify how many were still inside Ukraine.
US President Barack Obama and Merkel had warned following a telephone call that the Russian decision to send in the convoy marked a "dangerous escalation" of the four months of conflict in Ukraine with Western fears mounting that it could presage Moscow sending in troops.
The European Union and the United States both called for Moscow to pull out the trucks immediately or face further isolation as they drove cross-border tensions to a new high ahead of an already tricky visit to Kiev for the German leader.
Merkel will have to tread a fine line in Ukraine, showing firm support for Kiev's pro-Western leaders while also pushing for them to show restraint in their increasingly successful -- but brutal -- offensive.