Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks To Start

Ukraine’s new leader, Petro Poroshenko, will start talks today with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy about ending separatist violence in the former Soviet republic’s easternmost regions.

Poroshenko yesterday took the oath of office as Ukraine’s president and a day earlier discussed with Putin his proposals for the first steps toward a cease-fire. In his inauguration speech, he presented a plan to bring peace to the nation after more than six months of unrest that has 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 after taking the oath of office in the parliament building in Kiev yesterday.

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 yesterday, 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 Kiev yesterday. “We look for Mr. Putin to meet his end of the commitments and deliver on the pledge to actually work with your government.”

‘Adequate, Realistic’

After his May 25 landslide election victory, Poroshenko’s ability to repair relations with the country’s eastern neighbor will be key to his success in pacifying Ukraine’s easternmost regions, where the military is battling a separatist insurgency.

The speech addressed “all the pressing issues,” Yuriy Yakymenko, head of political research at the Razumkov Center, said by phone from Kiev. “The plan of action proposed to stabilize the internal Ukrainian situation is entirely adequate and realistic. Poroshenko clearly prioritized and targeted foreign policy. He also called a spade a spade, what really is happening, and this is important.”

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 will 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.

‘Authority, Decisiveness’

“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, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, saying he is the “president of another country,” according to the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news service. Boroday and his Luhansk counterpart, Valeriy Bolotov, said the Kiev government must withdraw its army before any talks are possible, according to the news service.

Poroshenko’s remarks “look hopeful” and Russia will continue to have working relations with Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, Russia’s ambassador in Kiev, said yesterday, 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, according to RIA.

Border Controls

Putin yesterday 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 in a statement June 6. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said it received notification by the authorities in Kiev about eight checkpoints having been shut.

The U.S. yesterday pledged a $48 million assistance package to Ukraine for tasks including strengthening the border guard service and “confidence-building measures that enhance national unity, particularly in the East and South,” according to a statement from the White House.

Poroshenko and Putin had a brief meeting June 6 in France, where the Russian president also spoke face-to-face with U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time since the crisis in Ukraine escalated in February. Putin welcomed Poroshenko’s commitment to ending the bloodshed and said the government in Kiev must call off its military campaign against pro-Russian separatists.

The diplomatic flurry pushed Russian financial markets higher. The benchmark stock index jumped 1 percent June 6, extending its gain since a mid-March low to 20 percent. The ruble added 0.8 percent against the dollar. The Ukrainian hryvnia, this year’s worst performer against the U.S. currency with a 30 percent plunge, advanced 0.8 percent.

Unrest Continues

Meanwhile, unrest continued in Ukraine’s easternmost regions. The office of border guards in Mariupol, in the Donetsk region, was attacked in drive-by shooting yesterday, Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the border service, said by phone. Rebels also surrounded a checkpoint on the Russian border and threatened to attack it unless Ukrainian troops give it up, according to the border service’s press office.

At another border crossing, 10 armored personnel carriers and 10 trucks with rebel forces appeared early yesterday, some of the crossing over to Russian territory, Yaroslav Honchar, deputy head of an Interior Ministry battalion, said on Facebook.

The U.S. and its European allies say Putin is behind the unrest in eastern Ukraine, where hundreds have died in the separatist insurgency. Russia accuses them of backing what it considers an illegitimate administration in Kiev that’s using armed force against its own people.

‘Goodwill, Wisdom’

“The Ukrainian leadership must show its goodwill and wisdom,” Putin said at a news conference in Normandy June 6. “They have to immediately stop the operation and announce a cease-fire. There is no other way to create the conditions for negotiations.”

Poroshenko, a businessman with investments including chocolates and media, became Ukraine’s fifth president since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Biden and European Union President Herman Van Rompuy were among leaders attending yesterday’s ceremony at parliament in Kiev.

“All neighbors stand to benefit from a return to stability in Ukraine and the promotion of growth and development,” Van Rompuy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “All neighbors also need to respect its sovereign choices, including stronger ties with the European Union, and its territorial integrity.”

Source : bloomberg