Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko demanded that Russia stop sending weapons to separatists as Poroshenko and the leaders of France, Germany, and Russia discussed a fraying plan to end the 3-year conflict.

 

 The July 24 telephone conversation among the four leaders lasted around two hours, and was the first for Emmanuel Macron since his election as France's president.

 

 The February 2015 peace plan known as the Minsk accords has failed to stop fighting in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 10,000 people since erupting in April 2014.

 

 The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin "presented in great detail Russia's approach on all key points of the...agreement."

 

 Poroshenko’s office said in a statement that Macron criticized last week's announcement by a separatist leader who said he wanted to establish a new state in Ukraine called Malorossia, or Little Russia.

 

 Fighting between government forces and insurgent fighters has ebbed and flowed over the years, and last week saw some of the deadliest clashes in months. Ukrainian officials said at least eight soldiers were killed.

 

 The talks came as the newly appointed U.S. envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, traveled to Kyiv in an effort to revitalize the Minsk deal. </s> Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday demanded Russia's Vladimir Putin halt arms supplies to rebels as the leaders of France and Germany tried to revive a peace plan.

After a spike in violence, the four leaders discussed the Ukraine crisis for two hours by telephone in the latest round of talks aimed at stilling a conflict that has killed 10,000 people since April 2014.

The conversation was the first to involve French President Emmanuel Macron since he came to power in May, becoming the main international moderator on the crisis along with Germany's Angela Merkel.

Last week saw some of the costliest clashes in months between Russian-backed rebels and government troops, after an insurgent leader announced plans to form a new "state" to replace Ukraine.

Poroshenko called the last days of July some of the bloodiest in 2017 and urged Russia "to immediately cease aggressive actions and supply of weapons to the occupied territories," Ukraine's presidency said in a statement after the talks.

Kiev and its allies in the West insist the Kremlin has sent troops and arms to back up the rebels, but Moscow continues to deny evidence of its role in the conflict.

In a statement the Kremlin said Putin "laid out Russia's approach on all the key points of the said agreement in great detail."

A February 2015 peace plan hammered out by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in the Belarusian capital Minsk has failed to stop clashes rumbling on in east Ukraine.

And although the deal has hit a wall it is still viewed by those involved as the only way of unwinding Ukraine's war.

Last week rebel chief Alexander Zakharchenko said he wanted to establish a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) on the basis of Ukraine.

While the plan immediately appeared doomed after it failed to gain traction with the Kremlin, it cast a further cloud over the peace agreement. </s> PARIS: Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine will hold a summit in Berlin on Wednesday to “evaluate the implementation” of the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine, the French presidency said.

The summit will also “discuss the next steps in the process towards ending the crisis in eastern Ukraine,” a statement said Tuesday.

The meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Russian, French and Ukrainian presidents, Vladimir Putin, Francois Hollande and Petro Poroshenko, was set in a flurry of telephone consultations.

The summit will be the first since October 2015 under the so-called “Normandy Format” grouping the four countries.

Hollande last week called on all parties in the Ukraine conflict to draw up a roadmap to end the crisis.

The aim would be to help Ukraine regain control of its borders with Russia, he said after speaking by telephone with Poroshenko.

Hollande had spoken Wednesday with Merkel and Putin about organizing a summit on the conflict.

Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, backs a separatist, pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.

Moscow has denied accusations that it has sent troops and weaponry across its border with Ukraine to fuel the conflict, which erupted in April 2014, destroying much of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitors in eastern Ukraine.

All sides agreed to a peace deal brokered by Germany and France in February 2015, but while the so-called Minsk accords reduced the intensity of fighting, they failed to stop it.

Wednesday’s meeting will come amid tensions between France and Russia over Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict that prompted Putin to cancel a visit to Paris.

And in Brussels on Thursday the 28 leaders of the European Union are due to discuss relations with Russia including sanctions over Ukraine which come up for renewal at the end of the year.

They are also expected to discuss Russia’s role in Syria. AFP </s> The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine have vowed to go ahead with a peace plan for eastern Ukraine.

France, Germany and Russia have mediated talks between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed rebels who have been fighting since April 2014 in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's office said that French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call today and vowed to help implement the peace deal they had brokered.

The separatists last week proclaimed a new state that aspires to include not only the areas in eastern Ukraine that they now control but territory beyond that. Poroshenko's office said both Macron and Merkel vehemently rejected the idea of the rebel state. </s> BERLIN -- The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France agreed Wednesday on a "road map" aimed at reviving the stalled peace process in eastern Ukraine, though details of the plan still need to be worked out by the countries' foreign ministers over the coming month.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had invited the three presidents to Berlin for the first four-way talks in over a year, insisting that while major progress was unlikely, it was important for talks to continue.

"I'm convinced it was right to reopen the channel of talks at this level again," Merkel said after the talks. She conceded that the four leaders "didn't achieve miracles," but maintained that the talks were necessary "in order not to lose momentum."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the four had agreed that the road map should be adopted by the end of November.

He was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying it would include all security issues including restoration of Ukraine's control of its entire border with Russia.

The road map is aimed at being a mechanism to implement the so-called Minsk Agreement of February 2015 on ending the conflict, in which more than 9,600 people have been killed.

Poroshenko also said the talks had reached an agreement on the deployment of an armed police mission in separatist eastern Ukraine.

But Merkel told reporters that such a step would first require Ukraine to pass laws for local elections in the disputed territory, something Kiev hasn't yet done.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in May that the group would consider sending such a mission to help conduct elections in the separatist regions of the east.

Merkel, Poroshenko, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Francois Hollande of France have met sporadically to discuss eastern Ukraine. Wednesday's meeting was the first time the four have met in more than a year.

The 2015 Minsk agreement brokered by France and Germany has helped end large-scale battles between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia separatists, but clashes have continued and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.

The decision to hold the meeting in Berlin follows a flurry of telephone diplomacy over the past week.

Merkel told reporters afterward that the issue of Syria also had been discussed with Russia.

Information for this article was contributed by Vladimir Isachenkov and James Heintz of The Associated Press. </s> BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “no wonders” should be expected at talks on a stalled peace plan for eastern Ukraine which she will host on Wednesday with the leaders of Russia, France and Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela review the honour guard during a welcoming ceremony at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany October 18, 2016. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

Other top officials, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, also dampened expectations of any breakthrough at the talks in Berlin on ending a conflict in which more than 9,600 people have been killed since 2014.

“One musn’t expect any wonders from tomorrow’s meeting but it is worth every endeavour on this issue to take efforts forward,” Merkel told a news conference on Tuesday.

Merkel said she and French President Francois Hollande would also discuss what she called the worsening humanitarian disaster in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Given this situation, I believe no option - including that of sanctions - can be taken off the table,” Merkel said, adding that the first priority was to alleviate human suffering in Syria.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was important to maintain pressure on Russia over Syria, a theme echoed by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

“Yes, we want better relations, but not at the price that (the Russians) don’t stick to the rules,” Schaeuble said in a speech in which he called for European Union states to pool their defence budgets to better counter the Russian military.

“We don’t want to fall back into the old insanity of reacting to every provocation, but that doesn’t mean we will accept the shifting of borders and power with violence.”

Ayrault said the meeting would aim to establish a timetable for elections in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and discuss further military disengagement along the line of conflict.

Poroshenko, speaking in Oslo, cautioned against setting “very high expectations” for the meeting. The Kremlin has criticized Ukraine for not respecting its obligations under the Minsk ceasefire deal.

A ceasefire agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk in February 2015 stemmed heavy fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels, but violence routinely flares along a demarcation line.

“Am I very optimistic? Yes. I am very optimistic about the future of Ukraine but unfortunately not so much about tomorrow’s meeting, but I would be very happy to be surprised,” Poroshenko said.

The talks will take place just over a year after the four leaders last met in the so-called “Normandy Format,” and against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Russia, Europe and the United States about Moscow’s military role in Syria.

Ayrault, speaking in Paris, said there was no alternative to continuing to work on the Minsk agreement.

“I told the Ukrainians there was no plan B to the Minsk accords. Some think there is a plan B, which is confronting Russia, which we don’t want.”

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it made sense to “compare notes” about implementation of the Minsk accord, but it was not possible to talk about any concrete agreements. </s> BERLIN: Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to Berlin on Wednesday for a summit on Ukraine amid escalating tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia’s role in Ukraine as well as Syria.

The meeting between the Russian, German, French and Ukrainian leaders will “evaluate the implementation” of the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine, Berlin and Paris said Tuesday.

Putin’s first visit to the German capital since the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2014 will come the day before the 28 leaders of the European Union are due to discuss relations with Russia including sanctions over Ukraine, which come up for renewal at the end of the year.

The EU summit in Brussels is also expected to discuss Russia’s role in Syria, which sparked a furious row between Russia and France last week that prompted Putin to cancel a visit to Paris.

Wednesday’s Ukraine summit will also “discuss the next steps in the process towards ending the crisis in eastern Ukraine,” the French president’s office said Tuesday.

All sides agreed to a peace deal brokered by Germany and France in February 2015, but while the so-called Minsk accords reduced the intensity of fighting, they failed to stop it.

Even before the meeting convened, Kiev and Moscow tamped down hopes for a breakthrough.

“Let’s not have very high expectations on this meeting,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on a visit to Oslo.

“Am I optimistic enough? Yes I’m very optimistic about the future of Ukraine but unfortunately not so optimistic about tomorrow’s meeting.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin believed there was “no alternative” to implementing the Ukraine accords.

“We know that on this point, the situation leaves much to be desired,” he said. “For the moment, Kiev is doing nothing.”

The summit, set in a flurry of telephone consultations, will be the first since a Paris meeting in October 2015 under the so-called “Normandy Format” grouping the four countries.

French President Francois Hollande last week called on all parties in the Ukraine conflict to draw up a roadmap to end the crisis.

The aim would be to help Ukraine regain control of its borders with Russia, he said after speaking by telephone with Poroshenko.

Hollande had spoken Wednesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Putin about organizing a summit on the conflict.

Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, backs a separatist, pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.

Moscow has denied accusations that it has sent troops and weaponry across its border with Ukraine to fuel the conflict, which erupted in April 2014, destroying much of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitors in eastern Ukraine.

Although focused on Ukraine, the Berlin meeting comes against the backdrop of the Syrian regime’s Moscow-backed assault on Aleppo, which the EU has warned could amount to a war crime.

EU foreign ministers said Monday they would press ahead with extending sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but stopped short of threatening measures against Russia.

Moscow on Monday announced an eight-hour “humanitarian” ceasefire in Aleppo later this week, as friction with the West has intensified.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned earlier this month that mounting tensions between the United States and Russia have created a situation that is “more dangerous” than the Cold War.

Relations between the two have nosedived since a Syria ceasefire they agreed to in September fell apart in less than a week. Washington has also accused Damascus and Moscow of staging war crimes in Aleppo.

At least 250,000 people are living under siege in rebel-held east Aleppo, and facing almost-daily heavy bombing since the Russian-backed Syrian army launched an offensive to retake the city last month. AFP </s> UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PETRO Poroshenko has announced the end of a martial law in the country’s border regions, which was introduced last month after Russia’s seizure of three of Kiev’s navy vessels in the Sea of Azov.

“Today, right now, at 2:00 pm (12pm Irish time) the martial law ends,” Poroshenko said during a live streamed National Security and Defence Council meeting in Kiev.

The president said he had reached the decision “based on analysis of all the components of the security situation in the country”.

The move to impose martial law came after Poroshenko warned of a build-up of Russian forces near Ukraine’s borders, escalating the most dangerous crisis in years between the ex-Soviet neighbours.

Russian border patrol boats fired on, boarded and seized the three Ukrainian vessels, along with 24 sailors, in November off the coast of Crimea. The sailors are still being held in detention by Russian authorities.

Western governments accused Russia of acting illegally and US President Donald Trump cancelled a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires over the incident.

“The support and concrete actions of our international partners — their pressure on the Kremlin combined with a martial law — have stopped the worst scenario that the Russian Federation planned,” Poroshenko said.

“They didn’t let Putin cross the new red line,” he added.

The martial law was imposed in 10 regions that adjoin either Russia’s borders or areas controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, as well as along the coast of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

Ukrainian armed forces were put on full combat readiness and replenished at the expense of the first-stage reserves.

Kiev also banned Russian men aged 16-60 from entering the country.

The entry was restricted for about 1,650 male citizens of Russia since November 30, the border service said Wednesday.

Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated since a pro-Western government came to power after the 2014 revolt against a pro-Russian leader, Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine.

The conflict pitting pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian government forces is estimated to have claimed more than 10,000 lives.

After a maritime conflict with Moscow in the Black Sea in late November, Poroshenko accused Russia of having sharply raised its military presence on the border, with Ukraine warning of the threat of “full-scale war.”

Today, Ukrainian president announced the new sanctions against those involved in the aggression against Ukrainian ships.

Poroshenko said a draft decision on the application of sanctions was included in the agenda of the meeting.

“As we see the political support and participation of the State Duma in this process, a large number of State Duma deputies are included in the sanction list,” he stated, referring to the Russian parliament.

Poroshenko also said that one of the reasons to end the martial law was the presidential election that is scheduled for 31 March.

Campaigning and elections are banned under martial law, he explained.

Previously critics attacked the acting president, saying that he used the incident in the Sea of Azov and the martial law to improve his ratings. </s> MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine on Monday imposed martial law for 30 days in parts of the country most vulnerable to an attack from Russia after President Petro Poroshenko warned of the “extremely serious” threat of a land invasion.

Poroshenko said martial law was necessary to bolster Ukraine’s defenses after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and took their crew prisoner at the weekend.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not like what was happening between Russia and Ukraine and was working with European leaders on the situation.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Russia’s seizure of the Ukrainian vessels “a dangerous escalation and a violation of international law” and called for restraint from both countries.

“The United States condemns this aggressive Russian action. We call on Russia to return to Ukraine its vessels and detained crew members, and to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Pompeo said in a statement.

The State Department said Pompeo spoke by phone with Poroshenko and reiterated strong U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian “aggression”.

The Ukrainian parliament approved the introduction of martial law after Poroshenko reassured some skeptical lawmakers that it would not be used to curb civil liberties or delay elections scheduled for next year.

It came at the end of a day when Ukraine and Russia traded accusations about Sunday’s standoff and Kiev’s allies weighed in to condemn Moscow’s behavior.

With relations still raw after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the crisis risked pushing the two countries into open conflict.

“Russia has been waging a hybrid war against our country for a fifth year. But with an attack on Ukrainian military boats it moved to a new stage of aggression,” Poroshenko said.

In a phone call with Poroshenko, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg offered the alliance’s “full support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.” Ukraine is not a NATO member though it aspires to membership.

Washington’s envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Russia’s actions were an “outrageous violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory” and sanctions on Russia would remain in place.

The European Union, Britain, France, Poland, Denmark, and Canada all condemned what they called Russian aggression. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the need for dialogue.

The stand-off in the Azov Sea is more combustible now than at any time in the past four years as Ukraine has rebuilt its armed forces, previously in disarray, and has a new generation of commanders who are confident and have a point to prove.

(Map of the Kerch Strait bridge: tmsnrt.rs/2PRMbqh)

“PROVOCATION”

Russia’s foreign ministry blamed Kiev for the crisis.

“It’s obvious that this painstakingly thought-through and planned provocation was aimed at igniting another source of tension in the region in order to create a pretext to ramp up sanctions against Russia,” it said in a statement.

Such a policy was “fraught with serious consequences,” it said, adding that Kiev was acting in coordination with the United States and the European Union.

Russia summoned the ranking diplomat at Kiev’s embassy in Moscow over the incident, the foreign ministry said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speaks during a parliament session to review his proposal to introduce martial law for 60 days after Russia seized Ukrainian naval ships off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea, in Kiev, Ukraine November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

In Kiev, Poroshenko said intelligence data suggested there was an “extremely serious threat” of a land-based operation against Ukraine by Russia.

“I have a document of intelligence in my hands ... Here on several pages is a detailed description of all the forces of the enemy located at a distance of literally several dozens of kilometers from our border. Ready at any moment for an immediate invasion of Ukraine,” he said.

Martial law would allow Ukraine to respond swiftly to any invasion and mobilize resources as quickly as possible, he said.

He dismissed “dirty speculation” by critics that he wanted to use the proposed measure to delay elections next year, where he faces a tough re-election fight and opinion polls show him trailing his opponents. Ukrainian lawmakers held a second vote to confirm the polls would take place as scheduled on March 31.

UKRAINIANS WOUNDED, VESSELS HELD

Russia's rouble currency RUB= weakened 1.4 percent against the dollar in Moscow on Monday, its biggest one-day fall since Nov. 9, while Russian dollar-bonds fell.

Markets are highly sensitive to anything that could trigger new Western sanctions, and therefore weaken the Russian economy. A fall in the price of oil LCOc1 - Russia’s biggest source of revenue - has made its economy more vulnerable.

The crisis erupted when border patrol boats belonging to Russia’s FSB security service seized two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat after opening fire on them and wounding three sailors on Sunday.

The Ukrainian vessels had been trying to enter the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea via the narrow Kerch Strait that separates Crimea from the Russian mainland.

Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, as saying on Monday that 24 Ukrainian sailors were being detained. Three of the sailors were wounded but were not in a serious condition and were recovering in hospital.

The FSB said the Ukrainian ships had ignored warning shots, forcing Russian vessels to open fire for real, after they illegally entered Russian territorial waters.

Slideshow (17 Images)

A Reuters witness in Kerch, a port in Crimea, said the three Ukrainian vessels were being held there on Monday.

Domestic politics in Moscow also add to the combustibility of the situation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has seen his high approval rating fall because of unpopular domestic policies. In the past, successful military action beyond Russia’s borders has buoyed his popularity.

Tensions have long been brewing over the Azov Sea. Crimea, on the western shore, is now controlled by Moscow, the eastern shore is Russian territory, and the northern shore is controlled by Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko demands Russia halt arms supplies to Russian-backed militants as the leaders of France and Germany tried to revive a peace plan.