Kiev rejects truce talks until rebels disarm
Print Edition
UKRAINE yesterday brushed off strong European pressure and rejected talks with pro-Russian rebels on a truce to halt a bloody insurgency convulsing the ex-Soviet nation until they laid down their arms.
“Now, any negotiations are possible only after the rebels completely lay down their arms,” Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said in a statement.
Ukrainian forces have scored a string of surprise military successes since the weekend that forced most of the militias to retreat to the sprawling eastern industrial hubs of Donetsk and Lugansk — both capitals of their own People’s Republics.
President Petro Poroshenko has ordered his troops to blockade the insurgents inside the cities and cut them off from any further arms supplies.
But it was not immediately clear how the new pro-Western leader intended to force the militias to give up their three-month campaign to join Russia.
Lugansk rebel leader Valeriy Bolotov said yesterday his men had managed to actually push back Ukrainian troops from part of the Russian border city and receive fresh supplies of anti-aircraft and artillery guns.
He added that any future truce talks would be conducted “on our own terms.”
Poroshenko tore up a 10-day ceasefire on July 1 because of uninterrupted rebel attacks that claimed the lives of more than 20 Ukrainian troops.
Uneasy EU leaders are hoping that a new truce and a Kremlin promise not to meddle can take pressure off the bloc to adopt sweeping sanctions that could damage their own strong energy and financial bonds with Russia.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday that “even if the situation in eastern Ukraine has shifted in favour of the Ukrainian security forces, there will be no purely military resolution of the conflict.”
French President Francois Hollande said he intended to press Poroshenko today during a joint call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But Washington has consistently backed the stepped-up campaign being waged by Ukrainian troops and irregular forces.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reiterated on Monday that “the government of Ukraine is defending the country of Ukraine, and I think they have every right to do that, as does the international community.”
Poroshenko yesterday dismissed the man who had headed Kiev’s self-proclaimed “anti-terrorist operation” since its launch on April 13 and replaced him with Vasyl Grytsak, a career security service officer.
The reshuffle was one of several in the Ukrainian Security Service and appeared to represent an attempt by Poroshenko to place trusted associates in top positions rather than any change in tactic in the campaign.
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