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U.S. and Russia Agree on Pact to Defuse Ukraine Crisis
(about 4 hours later)
GENEVA — Secretary of State John Kerry began talks here on Thursday with his counterparts from Ukraine, Russia and the European Union, in an uphill effort to defuse the spiraling tensions over Ukraine.
GENEVA — Leaders of a high-level diplomatic effort reached an agreement on Thursday over ways to start de-escalating the crisis in Ukraine.
Asked if he expected to make any progress, Mr. Kerry shrugged, lifting his hands. The gesture appeared to capture the wary mood about the chances that an accommodation between Ukraine and Russia could be achieved at the four-way meeting.
The agreement, which grants amnesty to members of armed groups who agree to leave the public buildings they have been occupying, was reached by Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterparts from Russia, Ukraine and the European Union after more than five hours of talks here.
The talks are being held at the same luxury hotel where, five years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was then serving as secretary of state, presented the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, with a red “reset” button that was intended to signal a fresh start in relations between the White House and the Kremlin.
“The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens,” the officials said in a joint statement.
The purpose of the session Thursday is to bring Ukraine and Russia to the same table — with the United States and the European Union participating — and to foster a dialogue on political and security issues.
“All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation or provocative actions,” the joint statement said. “The participants strongly condemned and rejected all expressions of extremism, racism and religious intolerance, including anti-semitism.”
Before the meeting began, Mr. Kerry conferred privately with Andrii Deshchytsia, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, about the presentation Ukraine intended to make to Mr. Lavrov on plans to decentralize power and to de-escalate tensions.
Whether the agreement would de-escalate the crisis, and how quickly, remained unclear. It was reached the same day that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia used aggressive new language in asserting Russia’s historical claims to eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia insurgents have taken control in several cities, rejecting the authority of the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
“We are going to talk, and we probably will have a good message,” Mr. Deshchytsia said about consultations with Mr. Kerry.
“All illegal armed groups must be disarmed; all illegally seized buildings must be returned to legitimate owners; all illegally occupied streets, squares and other public places in Ukrainian cities and towns must be vacated,” the agreement stated.
But the four-way meeting began with an enormous gap between the Ukrainian and Russian positions. Ukrainian officials planned to present their ideas on how to decentralize authority so that the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine would elect their own leaders and have more control over local budgets.
The negotiators reached the agreement in talks held at the same luxury hotel where five years ago Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was then serving as the secretary of state, presented the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, with a red “reset” button that was intended to signal a fresh start in the White House’s relations with the Kremlin.
But Russia has advocated a far more extensive version of federalism, one that would make Ukraine’s eastern provinces largely autonomous regions that could wield veto power over national issues like foreign policy, in effect increasing Moscow’s influence.
As the talks began, all sides had an incentive to avoid a diplomatic confrontation.
Another question hanging over the talks is whether incremental moves by the United States and Europe to impose economic sanctions on Moscow are sufficient to dissuade President Vladimir V. Putin from supporting the separatist movement in Ukraine, as Western nations contend.
Russia wanted to avoid the perception that it was being uncooperative in the search for a diplomatic solution and, thus, discourage Western nations from imposing new economic sanctions.
The Obama administration has said that the sanctions have hurt the Russian economy and forced the government to spend billions of dollars to prop up the ruble.
American officials have also sought to give Ukraine time to hold its May 25 presidential election without more extensive Russian interference.
But a statement the State Department issued on Sunday said that Russian agents had orchestrated the seizure of government buildings in eastern Ukraine amounted to a tacit acknowledgment that Western economic pressure had yet to restrain the Kremlin’s involvement on the ground.
European nations, for their part, would prefer not to impose wide-ranging sanctions.
The West’s incremental approach toward Russia has been evident at NATO as well. On the eve of the talks here, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of the alliance, announced that it would strengthen its posture by flying more patrols over the Baltic region and by deploying allied ships to the Baltic Sea.
While Mr. Rasmussen left the door open for additional steps, the measures he announced fell well short of appeals by Baltic and Eastern European members for the continuous deployment of allied troops on their territory.
