World Peace News: Top Stories

Ukraine's leader talks with Putin, Merkel on peace
by David McHugh and Balint Szlanko

The Associated Press Translate This Article
30 June 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's president spoke with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France on Monday to figure out how best to resolve the deadly conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east.

The telephone call between President Petro Poroshenko, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's Francois Hollande took place as an expiration deadline neared for Ukraine's shaky, unilateral cease-fire.

Poroshenko has already extended the cease-fire from seven days to 10 as part of a plan to end the conflict that has killed more than 400 people. The cease-fire has been continuously broken, however, and rebels have not laid down their weapons as Poroshenko has demanded.

National security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the decision would come before the cease-fire expires at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT, 3 p.m. EDT).

European leaders have urged Russia to use its influence with the rebels to de-escalate the conflict. They have said they could impose another round of economic sanctions against Russia if the conditions for a continuing cease-fire are not met.

French officials said the phone call Monday touched on establishing a full cease-fire by both sides, having international monitors on the border between Russia and Ukraine, freeing prisoners and holding substantial talks with Ukraine's separatist rebels.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Putin suggested to Poroshenko that both Ukrainian monitors and observers from the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe deploy to checkpoints on the Russian side of the border to ensure 'they aren't used for illegal means.'

'We expect that direct and detailed consultations between Russian and Ukrainian border guards will start shortly to agree on details of the monitors' presence,' he said in remarks carried by Russian news wires.

A Kremlin statement said foreign ministers from the four countries would carry the four-way talks - a distinct cold shoulder to efforts from the United States or the full European Union to be further involved in Ukraine's protracted crisis.

Sporadic fighting still flared Monday despite the cease-fire. Shelling killed at least two people and ruined several apartments in the rebel-held city of Slovyansk in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Poroshenko has demanded that rebels return posts along the Russia border to Ukrainian control and allow international monitors to verify the cease-fire. Rebels in the past have kidnapped several teams of monitors.

Rebel leader Alexander Borodai welcomed having OSCE observers monitor the situation anywhere in the region but rejected the demand to hand back the border checkpoints.

Poroshenko says his unilateral cease-fire is a first step to give rebels a chance to lay down their arms. Further steps would include an amnesty for separatists who have not committed serious crimes, early local elections and changes in the constitution to decentralize power to Ukraine's regions.

[...]

-------

Szlanko reported from Slovyansk, Ukraine. Lynn Berry and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world from good news reported by the press; and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based-Total Knowledge based-programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.

Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google)
(Altavista babelfish)

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.