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Kerry urges Russia: End aid to Ukraine rebels and join effort to halt ‘bloodshed’ Kerry urges Russia: End aid to Ukraine rebels and join effort to halt ‘bloodshed’
(about 7 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday called on Russia to end its support for pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine and pull back weapons and troops to restore a cease-fire torn apart by escalating fighting. KIEV, Ukraine — The leaders of Germany and France on Thursday announced a surprise diplomatic bid to end the conflict in Ukraine, working to forestall White House deliberations about arming government forces amid fears that the war could quickly spiral out of control.
“We want a diplomatic resolution,” said Kerry after meeting with Ukraine’s Western-allied president, Petro Poroshenko. The new peace effort came as civilian and military casualties have mounted by the hundreds in recent weeks. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande said they would fly to Moscow on Friday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to strike a deal. The unusual journey underscored the high stakes in the effort to quell the bloodiest European conflict since the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
“But we cannot close our eyes to the tanks that are crossing the border coming into Ukraine,” Kerry added. “We cannot close our eyes to Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms crossing the border and leading troops into battle.” But Western officials noted deep uncertainty about whether the diplomacy would yield results, as Russia has steadfastly maintained that it is not a party to the conflict. Ukraine and its Western allies have said the Kremlin is fueling the war with weaponry, supplies and soldiers.
Moscow insists it has no troops in the country and says any Russians with the rebels are independent volunteers in a conflict that began last year in opposition to moves by the Ukrainian government for closer ties with the West. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Thursday joined in the efforts in a visit to the Ukrainian capital, arriving just hours ahead of Merkel and Hollande.
Kerry arrived in Kiev just hours before French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped in the Ukrainian capital en route to Moscow in a last-ditch peace bid. Despite calls in Washington for the United States to start arming Ukraine with defensive weaponry, Kerry said the White House is still reviewing its options.
Western leaders fear the nearly yearlong conflict in eastern Ukraine is on the brink of a major escalation with the potential to thrust the West and Russia back to the open hostility that defined the Cold War. President Obama will make a decision on arms “soon” after talks with advisers, Kerry said.
Kerry said Russia must show its commitment “to ending the bloodshed, once and for all.” “We want a diplomatic resolution,” he said. “But we cannot close our eyes to tanks that are crossing the border from Russia and coming into Ukraine. We can’t close our eyes to Russian fighters in unmarked uniforms crossing the border and leading individual companies of so-called separatists in battle.”
Then he listed steps he said would demonstrate that Moscow’s intentions are peaceful: withdrawal of Russian troops and the pullback of heavy equipment out of range of eastern Ukraine. Kerry urged Russia to pull back weapons and troops to restore the tattered cease-fire. He also called for a sealed border between rebel-held eastern Ukraine and Russia.
Kerry also urged Russia to then seal the border between the two countries so the separatists cannot be resupplied. Russian diplomats said Thursday that they would view any U.S. move to arm the Ukrainians as a direct threat to their nation’s security.
At the same time, however, Washington was evaluating battlefield contingencies. More than 5,300 people have died in Ukraine since hostilities began in April, according to U.N. estimates. Rebels have taken hundreds of square miles of territory since a September deal to halt the fighting and freeze the territorial land grabs. At least eight people died in the last 24 hours.
Some lawmakers and other have appealed for a shift in U.S. policies to supply Ukraine’s military with weapons such as anti-tank missiles and surveillance equipment including drones and advanced radar. Rebel leaders warned this week that they would mobilize vast forces against Ukrainian troops in the eastern part of the country. Russia, meanwhile, announced large-scale military exercises in recent days; such a step came ahead of a previous escalation in August.
In response, Russia has said any efforts to increase Ukraine’s firepower as a security threat. The sudden diplomatic effort — which will bring Merkel to Moscow for the first time since relations soured with Russia nearly a year ago — appeared to be a last-ditch measure to halt the conflict. Merkel, a Russian speaker from formerly Communist East Germany, was once the Western leader considered best able to bargain with Putin. But she broke with him this year after the escalations in Ukraine and has been reluctant to hand him the public relations coup of a visit to Moscow, analysts say.
Kerry said President Obama would make a decision “soon” after talks with advisers. Putin sent his Ukrainian counterpart a letter in recent days with proposals to halt the fighting, said his top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, to reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
“His first preference is obviously to be able resolve this through diplomacy with an agreement everybody would live up and adhere to,” Kerry told reporters in Kiev. Western officials who had been briefed on Putin’s proposals said that they amounted to an attempt at a new quasi-independent Russian-backed statelet similar to Transnistria in Moldova and Abkhazia in Georgia — a step that would be distasteful to the West and politically impossible in Kiev.
That effort is in the hands of European partners at the moment. “It is not a peace plan. It is a roadmap to creating a new Transnistria or Abkhazia in Ukraine,” a Western diplomat told reporters under ground rules of anonymity. “It is a cynical effort to get out of all the commitments made in Minsk,” where the September cease-fire was signed.
Some Western officials fear the latest offensive could set the stage for a declaration of a breakaway state in eastern Ukraine — a country that already has lost Crimea to Russia and now is under threat of being further splintered. Merkel and Hollande were going to present their plan on Friday, after consulting with Ukraine’s Western-allied president, Petro Poroshenko, in Kiev.
In Paris, Hollande said that he and Merkel planned “a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.” But he said he did not favor NATO membership for Ukraine, a step that Russian officials have said would be a major threat. In Paris, Hollande said that he and Merkel plan “a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.” But he said he did not favor NATO membership for Ukraine, a concession to Russian officials who have said membership would be a major threat.
Hollande warned that “total war” could loom in Ukraine if fighting is unchecked.Hollande warned that “total war” could loom in Ukraine if fighting is unchecked.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, did not directly comment on the European initiative but noted that “drastic measures need to be taken to stop the clashes and the deaths of civilians,” the Interfax news agency reported from Moscow. The Obama administration has limited its assistance to Ukraine. Much has been humanitarian, though the United States has provided some military equipment, such as night-vision goggles.
He said a Kremlin draft proposal was sent to Ukraine’s leaders, but he gave no further details.
Recent fighting has caused heavy civilian casualties in the eastern port city of Mariupol and the railroad junction of Debaltseve, Ukrainian officials said.
“So we have a Russian government that is talking the talk of cease-fire, talking the talk of peace, even as it fuels this conflict,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
The Obama administration so far has limited any assistance to Ukraine. Much of it has been humanitarian, though it has provided some military equipment such as night-vision goggles.
“The risk is we’re doing too little, not doing too much,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who is gathering signatures on a letter urging the administration to send Ukraine defensive weaponry.“The risk is we’re doing too little, not doing too much,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who is gathering signatures on a letter urging the administration to send Ukraine defensive weaponry.
“At this point, we’ve given the Russians plenty of off ramps, and they haven’t shown any willingness to take them,” he added. In addition to Schiff’s initiative, leading think tanks and former senior Obama administration officials have called for arming Ukraine. Eleven members of the Senate Armed Services Committee from both parties, including chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), added their voices at a news conference Thursday. Reed noted that Congress had overwhelmingly supported “lethal and non-lethal military assistance” for Ukraine in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.
Kerry announced on his arrival that the United States would provide an additional $16 million in humanitarian aid to buy blankets, repair homes, obtain wheelchairs and provide counseling for war victims. There was no mention of high-grade military equipment. Kerry announced in Kiev that the United States would provide an $16 million in humanitarian aid to buy blankets, repair homes, obtain wheelchairs and provide counseling for war victims.
Such a move would almost certainly invite a reaction from Moscow, which is otherwise aligned with Washington on issues such as the Iran nuclear talks and the need to stop Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. The prospect of arming Ukraine has drawn concerns not just from Russia but also from close U.S. allies in Europe. Germany and France have said they have no plans to do so.
“Even if we try to do this covertly, there’s a risk that it will boomerang in other areas of the U.S.-Russia relationship,” said Andrew C. Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The Ukraine issue is so existential, so tied up in Putin’s domestic position, it’s difficult to prevent a very fundamental dispute over Ukraine from bleeding over into other issues.” “The German government is very clear in its statements. One should not pour oil into the fire,” said Markus Kaim, a security analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Merkel’s visit to Moscow will be closely watched. One possibility, Kaim said, would be a new package that would allow both sides to save face: for example, by offering a European Union trade deal in return for Russia’s enforcing the peace plan.
A native of the former East Germany, she speaks fluent Russian and is considered the European leader most likely to get through to Putin and present a countering narrative to the Russian version that it is the Ukrainians who are the aggressors. Any move toward arming Ukraine would almost certainly invite a reaction from Moscow, which is otherwise aligned with Washington on such issues as the Iran nuclear talks and the need to stop Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
It would mark her first visit to Russia since the fighting in Ukraine broke out. “Even if we try to do this covertly, there’s a risk that it will boomerang in other areas of the U.S.-Russia relationship,” said Andrew C. Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Given the escalation of violence in the past days, the chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their months-long efforts for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” said Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert. NATO defense ministers on Thursday agreed to significantly bolster quick-deploying forces that could react to any threat to NATO territory from Russia. One large-scale response group will increase from 13,000 to 30,000. Another quick-reaction ground force of 5,000 troops will be created.
In eastern Ukraine, a top Ukrainian general in charge of monitoring the cease-fire said hopes for an imminent deal were raised earlier this week when his Russian counterpart returned to work in the surrounded city of Debaltseve. The Russian general had pulled out last month shortly before the rebel offensive. E.U. leaders also said they plan to discuss further sanctions against Russia and the rebels at a meeting next week.
The situation has “improved,” said Gen. Oleksandr Rozmaznin, who noted that the Russians had returned to the office on Monday. He said he believed it was a sign that the risk of a rebel offensive had eased. Karoun Demirjian in Soledar, Ukraine, Anthony Faiola in Munich, Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
Karoun Demirjian in Soledar, Ukraine, and Michael Birnbaum in Moscow contributed to this report.