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Merkel, Seeking an End to Conflict in Ukraine, Plans Trip to Kiev As Its Forces Advance, Ukraine Says Poroshenko Will Meet With Putin
(about 5 hours later)
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has accepted an invitation from the Ukrainian president to travel to Kiev this weekend, her office announced on Tuesday. The visit will be the first time Ms. Merkel has visited Ukraine since a popular uprising late last year overturned the government and set off a revolt by pro-Russian separatists. KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces pushed deeper into territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels on Tuesday, fighting street battles in the besieged city of Luhansk and pressuring the outer defenses of Donetsk in a further blow to the separatists’ crumbling virtual state.
Germany has tried to lead diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine by seeking cooperation from Russia, with which it has strong economic and political ties. But Germany joined other European nations and the United States in imposing economic sanctions against Russia after President Vladimir V. Putin repeatedly refused to respond to urging from Berlin, and from Ms. Merkel personally, to help ease the tensions. While continuing its offensive, the Ukrainian government said it saw a real chance for a peaceful settlement after an announcement that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would meet next Tuesday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro O. Poroshenko, in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Ms. Merkel has frequently called Mr. Putin and Petro O. Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, as part of diplomatic efforts that have so far borne little fruit. She will meet Mr. Poroshenko during her daylong trip to Kiev on Saturday, and will hold talks with Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk and local politicians from across the country, her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement. “I come with positive news. I think we have a chance to switch to a real road map towards a peaceful process,” Valery Chaly, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said at a news conference in Kiev.
On Monday, the chancellor visited Riga, Latvia, where she sought to reassure the Baltic states, which also include Estonia and Lithuania, that their partners in NATO would defend them against any Russian aggression. The three countries, all former Soviet republics, have Russian-speaking minorities that they fear could be vulnerable to destabilization from Moscow, as seems to have happened in eastern Ukraine. Previous efforts toward a settlement, which included a meeting of foreign ministers last week in Berlin, have all failed, and even an agreement on when and how a Russian aid convoy could enter Ukraine has proved elusive. The convoy of more than 260 trucks remained stuck on the Russian side of the border, a week after it left Moscow. Ukrainian officials expressed bewilderment over why many of the Russian trucks appeared to be mostly empty if their only purpose was to deliver humanitarian aid.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, was waiting Tuesday to hear from his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts whether they would be willing to continue negotiations toward a diplomatic solution and a lasting cease-fire. The three ministers, along with the French foreign minister, met for five hours over dinner in Berlin on Sunday without reaching a concrete agreement. Despite the repeated diplomatic setbacks, Mr. Chaly said the two countries’ presidents stood a better chance of a breakthrough that could bring an end to the war in eastern Ukraine. Talks have foundered on Russia’s refusal to halt or even acknowledge what Ukraine and its Western supporters say is a steady flow of fighters and military hardware into Ukraine from Russia.
Fighting in Ukrainian villages near the Russian border has left at least 2,086 dead and more than 5,000 wounded, according to the United Nations’ human rights office. Dozens of refugees were killed on Monday by rebels, who attacked their caravan as they tried to flee villages in the country’s eastern regions, the Ukrainian government said. “We all realize that these issues can only be solved at the highest level, at the level of president, especially in the case of Russia,” Mr. Chaly said.
Civilians have increasingly become trapped in the midst of fighting between the pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian military. There was no independent confirmation of the Ukrainian government’s report of the attack on the caravan on Monday. The rebels have accused Ukraine of exaggerating the number of civilian casualties. On the ground, fighting raged unabated, with Ukraine’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, asserting that Ukrainian forces had entered the town of Ilovaysk, about 11 miles east of Donetsk, the rebels’ biggest remaining stronghold in eastern Ukraine.
News services reported on Tuesday that there was fighting in central Luhansk, one of the largest separatist-controlled cities in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials also reported fierce street battles in Luhansk, and said 15 bodies had been recovered from a refugee convoy that fled that city on Monday and was then, according to Ukraine, attacked by rebels fighting to regain control of a strategic highway leading south to the Russian border. The rebels denied hitting a caravan of refugees.
The Kremlin has accused Kiev of stepping up its operations in eastern Ukraine to sabotage what Moscow describes as a humanitarian mission involving a convoy of about 270 trucks that has been stalled for days on the Russian side of the border and has become the center of diplomatic haggling. The Defense Ministry in Kiev released a video of what it said were survivors of the attack describing how the convoy of vehicles had suddenly come under fire, despite flying white flags. But no photographs or video footage have emerged of the assault.
The worsening of the humanitarian situation has begun to raise concerns in European countries, which have so far largely sought ways to resolve the crisis rather than addressing the deteriorating conditions on the ground. In a letter to the foreign ministers of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, the council’s secretary general, appealed on Tuesday for member states to support international aid to organizations working in eastern Ukraine. In Donetsk, which along with Luhansk forms the core of the separatists′ fast-shrinking domain, the rebels struggled to keep control of outlying districts.
“The situation can only be described as dramatic, and it may deteriorate even further,” Mr. Jagland wrote. Emblematic of the tightening squeeze on the city, an artillery duel broke out Tuesday to the northeast, in Makiivka, as representatives of a rebel Parliament were trying to deliver food to an orphanage for disabled preschool children, called the Special Child Center.
In the blighted industrial area, strewn with the pipes and smokestacks of an aging coking plant, rebels took up position near the orphanage and fired mortars, oblivious to the aid delivery mission. The Ukrainians then fired back.
None of the children were hurt, but in the ensuing shelling at least three people died and the neighborhood was whipped into a panic.
In the chaotic scene, women ran through the leafy courtyard clutching the hands of the children, residents emerged from apartments lugging hastily packed bags, and gunshots and explosions echoed among the apartment buildings. On a street called Fifty Years of the Soviet Union, a dead woman lay on the sidewalk.
“They just bombarded us,” said Stanislav Nosov, a teenager crouching in the stairway to a basement. “If they are shooting here, the battle for Donetsk has begun.”
But whether Ukraine’s final push into the city was really underway was unclear.
A rebel soldier said the Ukrainian Army had not crossed a bridge over a canal that would indicate a ground assault on Donetsk, and that the din of explosions was in fact just a continuation of what in recent weeks has been a regular barrage into the city from Ukrainian positions outside.
The wounded were loaded into cars and ambulances and driven toward the center of town; after a time, the courtyard quieted and the yelling stopped.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has left at least 2,086 dead and more than 5,000 wounded, according to the United Nations. Each side blames the other for the mounting toll.
The fighting around Donetsk and inside Luhansk provided a grim counterpoint to unusually upbeat statements in Kiev about the possibility of a settlement.
“We have a busy and very exciting week ahead,” said Mr. Chaly, the presidential administration official. “We are moving from telephone communication to direct diplomacy.”
Lifted by battlefield gains in recent weeks, the mood in Kiev was lifted further on Tuesday by news that Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany had accepted an invitation from Mr. Poroshenko to travel to Kiev this weekend, and that the European Union was considering a new round of economic assistance. Ms. Merkel’s visit to Kiev will be her first since a popular uprising toppled the previous president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, in February and set off a revolt by pro-Russian separatists.
“We see this visit as a demonstration of solidarity at a very important time and a very important place,” Mr. Chaly said.