Putin demands ‘statehood’ talks on rebel-held Ukraine
VLADIMIR Putin has demanded urgent talks on ‘statehood’ for the rebel-held eastern areas of Ukraine, as European leaders threatened a fresh round of sanctions.
The Russian president said the issue needed to be discussed to ensure the interests of the overwhelmingly Russian speaking population in the region ‘are definitely upheld’.
The hard-line rhetoric came a day after the EU gave Russia a one-week ultimatum to reverse its course of action in Ukraine or face sanctions.
They also follow a public appearance in which Putin compared the Kiev government to Nazis and warned the West not to ‘mess with us’.
It came as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon called for Nato countries to match the UK in meeting their commitments to defence spending to combat the ‘threat now here on our own doorstep’.
Last night Ukraine claimed ‘hundreds’ of their soldiers were killed when pro-Russian forces went back on a deal to allow them to withdraw from a besieged town 20 miles east of Donetsk. ‘We came from Ilovaisk bearing white flags,’ one soldier said. ‘They shot us from all sides.’
And in the first naval attack of the four-month conflict, separatists fired on a Ukrainian vessel in the Azov Sea yesterday.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said a rescue operation was under way following the artillery attack from the shore.
Ukraine and Russia exchanged soldiers who had entered each other’s territory near the battlefield, where Kiev says Moscow’s forces have come to the aid of pro-Russian insurgents, tipping the mili- tary balance in the rebels’ favour. European leaders threatened action over the ‘ unacceptable’ incursion by troops from Russia into its neighbour, but the Kremlin denies Western accusations that its forces illegally crossed into Ukraine to support local separatists.
Putin said Ukraine should begin ‘ substantive, meaningful talks’ about the future of the country’s eastern region.
He said discussions should not be about ‘ technical issues but about the question of the political organisation of society and statehood in south-east Ukraine, with the goal of safeguarding the legiti- mate interests of those people who live there’.
Putin’s officials insisted that despite the use of the word ‘statehood’, he did not envision sovereignty for the two separatist eastern regions that style themselves as ‘Novorossiya’, or New Russia.
Although Ukraine is not a member of Nato, its president Petro Poroshenko, who met with Putin last week, will join leaders of Nato nations at a summit in Wales this week, where Mr Fallon said efforts would be made to reassure the alliance’s eastern members.
British troops will take part in a series of large- scale exercises in former Eastern Bloc countries in an effort to demonstrate the alliance’s commitment to them.
Mr Fallon told Sky News’s Murnaghan programme: ‘I have authorised the deployment of an entire battle group to take part in a new exercise from September right through to December in Poland.
‘There are going to be over 3,000 British troops involved in these countries this year and next year.
‘And we’ve also got to get the Nato countries to spend more on defence. We simply can’t leave this to the Americans – this is a threat now here on our own doorstep.’
The Prime Minister said the EU had taken ‘important steps’ on the Russia issue and the European Commission would present firm proposals for tougher sanctions within a week.