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Russia to meet EU and US for talks over Ukraine crisis
Russia to meet EU and US for talks over Ukraine crisis
(about 4 hours later)
Senior figures from Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the US are set to meet for talks on the situation in Ukraine next week, it has been announced, in what will be the first meeting of the four since the crisis erupted.
The Ukrainian authorities have said they will end the occupation of administrative buildings by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, either by negotiations or force, within 48 hours, as four-way talks between Russia, Ukraine, the US and EU were announced for next week in an attempt to defuse the tense situation.
The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, will join the US secretary of state, John Kerry, his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine's foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia.
"A resolution to this crisis will be found within the next 48 hours," said the interior minister, Arsen Avakov, in Kiev, referring to the eastern cities of Luhansk and Donetsk where protesters remained in control of government buildings.
News of the meeting emerged as a tense standoff between pro-Russian sectarianists and Ukraine security forces continued in the country's east.
"For those who want dialogue, we propose talks and a political solution. For the minority who want conflict they will get a forceful answer from the Ukrainian authorities," he said.
Ukraine's security service has said that 56 people held inside a local headquarters in the eastern city of Luhansk occupied by pro-Russian separatists have been allowed to leave the premises.
In Luhansk, the protesters did not appear in the mood to compromise, and on Wednesday were reinforcing the barricades around the security services building they have seized, and preparing petrol bombs.
The Luhansk security services building was among several government offices seized by pro-Moscow groups on Sunday in an escalation of protests against the interim government in power since President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February.
In Donetsk, protesters remain in control of the local administration building, from where on Monday they proclaimed Donetsk an independent republic and said they would hold a referendum within a month on the region's status and whether it should appeal to join Russia.
With the crisis in eastern Ukraine deepening, Russia sought on Wednesday to ease concerns in Kiev and the west over the presence of troops near the border with Ukraine and denied it was considering invading eastern Ukraine.
In Kharkiv, protesters also seized the local administration building, but were removed by security forces, who arrested 70 people.
"The United States and Ukraine have no reason to be worried," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. "Russia has stated many times that it is not carrying out any unusual or unplanned activity on its territory near the border with Ukraine that would be of military significance."
Kiev has claimed the protesters are directed by Russian security services, and on Tuesday, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, accused Moscow of stirring up unrest, possibly as a pretext for Crimea-style military intervention.
Kiev, meanwhile, vowed that the situation would be resolved within 48 hours, either by negotiations or force.
Many locals in eastern Ukraine have concerns about the new government in Kiev, but support for actually joining Russia, unlike in Crimea, is not widespead.
All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine's industrial heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and where there is significant hostility toward the government that took power after the ousting of Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych.
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin is due to meet with his cabinet on Wednesday and discuss possible economic responses to Ukraine. The Russian gas monopoly, Gazprom, says Russia has not received any money for March gas deliveries and still has a $2.2bn (£1.3bn) debt outstanding from Ukraine. Kiev has said it will pay the debt but has protested at an 80% rise in gas prices announced last week.
By Wednesday morning, protesters in Luhansk had erected high barricades along a thoroughfare running in front of the security service premises.
Diplomats will hope that four-way talks next week could help to defuse the situation. The talks, planned for an unspecified time and location, will be the first four-way talks since former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine and the new government was formed. Since then, Russia has annexed Crimea, and Kiev and Moscow have been engaged in a bitter war of words, with both sides accusing the other of sponsoring terrorism.
Overnight, speakers gathered in front of the building condemned the government in Kiev and renewed demands to be allowed to hold a referendum on declaring autonomy for their region. Similar demands were made before Crimea's annexation by Russia.
The Kiev government claimed it had evidence that Russian security services were behind the violence that left over 100 dead in Kiev in February, while Russian security services say they have arrested a number of Ukrainians acting on official orders and planning terror attacks inside Russia.
Speeches were occasionally interspersed with chants of "Russia, Russia!"
An unidentified speaker at one stage listed names of prominent politicians that he suggested should be executed, eliciting cheers in return.
The security service had said on Tuesday that separatists inside the building, armed with explosives and other weapons, were holding 60 people hostage. It was not immediately clear if the 56 allowed to leave on Wednesday were among that number, or how many people were still being held.
Those occupying the building have issued a video statement warning that any attempt to storm the place would be met with armed force.
In the video, posted by Ukrainian media, a masked man identified the occupiers as Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and said that if authorities tried to retake the building, "Welcome to hell, then!"
There was little immediate evidence of any major deployment of Ukrainian special forces at the site.
The security service said negotiations with the separatists were continuing and that parliamentary deputies had been able to enter and leave the building unhindered.
The Ukrainian government and the US have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest as a pretext for another Russian military incursion like the takeover of Crimea last month. Up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed along the Ukrainian border, according to Nato.
