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Leaders Announce Plan for Ukraine Cease-Fire Leaders in Ukraine Talks Announce Cease-Fire Agreement
(about 1 hour later)
MINSK, Belarus — A new cease-fire and an overall compact to end the war in eastern Ukraine was announced here on Thursday by the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine after marathon overnight bargaining that threatened to derail the attempt. Even as the agreement was announced, it appeared fragile, with officials on all sides saying that there was more work to be done. MINSK, Belarus — A renewed cease-fire and an overall agreement to end the war in Ukraine was announced here on Thursday by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France after marathon overnight bargaining that nearly collapsed at the very end.
The cease-fire is scheduled to take effect on midnight Saturday, but the fact that the leaders used three separate news conferences to announce the accord suggested a lack of unity. Still, after such a concentrated effort, all the leaders chose to accent the idea that there was at least a chance that the yearlong war could be quieted. The cease-fire is scheduled to begin at midnight on Saturday, but the 13-point compact appeared fragile, with crucial issues like the truce line left unresolved. Over all, there seemed to be no guarantee that the problems that marred the cease-fire agreement reached here in September had been ironed out.
The negotiations “consisted of a long night and a long morning, but we have arrived at an accord on a cease-fire and a global end to the conflict,” President François Hollande of France said. “It is a relief for Europe.” The very fact that it took more than 16 hours of intensive negotiations to reach an agreement, and that the leaders announced the accord in three separate news conferences, seemed to underscore a certain lack of unity.
Mr. Hollande said a broader agreement on ending the war would ultimately hinge on border control and the resolution of questions like the withdrawal of heavy weapons. But after so many hours spent in the grandiose Independence Palace in the Belarussian capital, all four leaders seemed determined to accent the idea that the agreement should be given the chance to quiet the yearlong conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The marathon talks meant to quiet the war in Ukraine had appeared to be in doubt on Thursday as the four leaders negotiating the agreement canceled news briefings intended to announce an accord and returned to the negotiating table. “It consisted of a long night and a long morning, but we arrived at an accord on the cease-fire and the global end to the conflict,” François Hollande, the French president, said at a news conference in a joint appearance with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine and Mr. Hollande, along with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, haggled for more than 15 hours in talks that had begun Wednesday evening. Ms. Merkel, who unexpectedly initiated a mediation effort with her French counterpart last week, said, “What we have on the table today gives us great hope,” although she simultaneously stressed that there was much work ahead.
In the morning, rather than presenting the results at a collective briefing, the Russian and Ukrainian presidents had each planned to address reporters from their countries, while the leaders of Germany and France met with a different set of journalists. Officials had said hours earlier that there would be a joint briefing in the press room of the ornate Independence Palace, where the negotiations have taken place. "We have no illusions,” she said, “A great, great deal of work still needs to be done. But there is a real chance to turn things around toward the better."
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavlo A. Klimkin, sent out a tweet not long after dawn, saying that members of some delegations were “literally sleeping,” but that the negotiators for Kiev were still going strong. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine, in their separate briefings, highlighted those parts of the agreement that matched their demands, while noting crucial outstanding questions.
Part of the urgency was that Ms. Merkel and Mr. Hollande were due at a Thursday afternoon summit meeting of the European Union in Brussels, which Mr. Poroshenko was also scheduled to address. Having committed themselves to making one last effort to secure peace, however, it seemed that the French and German leaders were determined to wrest an agreement from the talks before leaving. “Despite all the difficulties of the negotiating process, we managed to agree on the main things,” Mr. Putin said. Those issues included the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, a promise for constitutional reform, and “special status” for the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, he said.
The return to the negotiating table was accompanied by a flurry of Russian news agency reports that Mr. Poroshenko had declined at the last minute to accept the outlines of the deal that addressed the independent status of the breakaway areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the demarcation line meant to form the spine of a demilitarized zone. Mr. Poroshenko, for his part, emphasized the humanitarian issues, like the release of all prisoners, including Lt. Nadiya V. Savchenko, a female helicopter navigator who was elected to the Ukrainian Parliament while facing trial in Moscow. All foreign troops, military equipment and mercenaries should be withdrawn from Ukrainian territory, he said.
The separatists and their Russian patrons want a federal system that gives the breakaway regions independence over their foreign and economic policies, while Mr. Poroshenko had vowed that only some manner of decentralization was acceptable. But the plan also included some tripwires, not least the questions about the truce line and the fate of the village of Debaltseve, a key railroad hub that has been the site of fierce fighting in recent weeks.
In addition, the truce line has shifted since an original deal was signed in September, creating a more cohesive whole from the two breakaway regions. The town of Debaltseve remains a point of contention, with the Ukrainian troops holding it now surrounded. Mr. Putin said, for example, that the truce line would be determined by where the fighting stops next Saturday, while the separatist forces would observe the line set out in the September agreement.
Much of the negotiations overnight were believed to have been consumed by discussions over each of the 12 points of the protocol agreed last September, and efforts to come up with a working plan on how each might be implemented. The deal calls for heavy artillery to be withdrawn at least 25 kilometers from each side, and the biggest missiles even further. The withdrawal is scheduled to start two days after the cease-fire and to be completed within two weeks.
As the peace talks stalled, fighting continued in the disputed areas of southeastern Ukraine. Mr. Putin said that Mr. Poroshenko refused to acknowledge that the separatist forces had surrounded up to 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Debaltseve, but the Russian leader said he hoped that consultations between military commanders would settle that matter.
Pro-Russian rebel forces mounted a counterattack on areas east of the coastal city of Mariupol, trying to retake some of the ground seized in recent days by the volunteer, right-wing Azov Battalion. The Russian leader warned that the situation there carried the potential for renewed fighting, but he called on both sides to stop the bloodshed.
Residents of the industrial port on the Sea of Azov, widely expected to be the next target of rebel attacks if the Minsk peace talks do not produce a truce, could hear heavy shelling throughout the morning. Even as all sides endorsed the pending cease-fire, the fighting that has left more than 5,400 people dead since last spring continued.
City and military officials said the fighting did not hit civilian areas in the city, but was confined to small villages to the east. Pro-Russian rebel forces mounted a counterattack on areas east of the coastal city of Mariupol, attempting to retake some of the ground seized in recent days by the volunteer, right-wing Azov Battalion.
Residents of Mariupol, an industrial port on the Sea of Azov that was widely expected to be the next target of rebel attacks if the truce agreed to in Minsk does not hold, said they could hear heavy shelling throughout the morning.
City and military officials said the fighting had not hit civilian areas in Mariupol, but had been confined to small villages to the east.
Through the new accord, Mr. Poroshenko sought to reassert Ukrainian control over the hundreds of kilometers of border with Russia. Kiev said the border remained porous, despite attempts at international monitoring, allowing Moscow easily to supply the two breakaway regions with men, money and material.
Russia and the separatists deny that Moscow is contributing any direct military aid.
But Russia said such border control by Kiev should be a lower priority than other issues, including constitutional reform and local elections, which the compact says should come by the end of 2015.
The Kremlin is seeking to establish autonomous republics with their own economic and foreign policies, while Ukraine has only talked about decentralization. The compact says that decentralization will be implemented, but the degree of autonomy was ambiguous.
“This was not simple; in fact, unacceptable conditions were offered,” Mr. Poroshenko said, calling a new cease-fire the main achievement. “We did not agree to any ultimatums.”
The nearly four-page compact was signed by representatives of the separatists, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — which monitored the last fruitless cease-fire effort — and mirrored the September accord.
Aside from the cease-fire, the agreement called for a dialogue between the two sides on holding elections, with the talks to start the day after heavy weapons are withdrawn. It also said that the Ukrainian Parliament should define by law the territory of the areas to have self-rule and should pass an amnesty for the separatist leaders. Kiev should also establish the means to pay pensions and other social benefits which have been cut off, it said, including linking the banking system back to the national network.
The peace talks appeared on the verge of collapse even as they were drawing to a close. News conferences originally scheduled to announce an agreement were postponed, and the leaders went back to the bargaining table.
The return was accompanied by a flurry of Russian news agency reports that Mr. Poroshenko had declined at the last minute to accept the outlines of the deal relating to the independent status of the breakaway areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the cease-fire demarcation line.
When the leaders of the breakaway regions joined the talks in the morning, they also initially balked at signing the agreement, according to the official Russian news agency TASS.
Over all, there are questions about whether groups on both sides that have driven the confrontation will abandon fighting, particularly the separatists.
Russia is believed to be trying to create a frozen conflict that could be used to destabilize Ukraine any time it draws too close to the West.
“The practical, realistic expectation is a frozen conflict with no effective control by Kiev over those areas, but no formal responsibility of Russia,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.
But the conflict has also reached a point where Russia would have to commit significant new resources for any advance, which helped clear the way for a settlement, Mr. Lukyanov said.
The separatists “cannot advance very much without direct Russian involvement and Russia does not want to get directly involved,” he said.
Much of the negotiations overnight were consumed by discussion over each of the 12 points of the protocol agreed to in September, and a working plan on how each might be implemented.
But senior officials remained tight-lipped as they shuffled between negotiating sessions that swelled with advisers and then shrunk back to the leaders repeatedly during the talks.
“A lot,” was all Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov responded when asked what news the talks had produced.