Sunday Times 2
D-Day spirit: France, Germany bring together Russia, Ukraine leaders
View(s):COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France, June 7 (Reuters) – The leaders of Russia and Ukraine held their first talks on Friday since Moscow annexed Crimea, airing ways to end their four-month conflict in a brief encounter during commemorations in France of World War Two D-Day landings.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel brought together Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko for a 15-minutemeeting before they joined other dignitaries for lunch.
Putin went on to have an equally short meeting with Barack Obama in which, according to a White House official, the U.S. President urged him to recognise Poroshenko as Ukraine’s leader and to cut off arms supplies to pro-Russian separatists.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L), Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) speak following a group photo of world leaders attending the D-Day 70th Anniversary ceremonies at Chateau de Benouville in Benouville, France on Friday. AFP
French officials have been plotting for weeks to use the70th anniversary of the D-Day landings — a key event helping to end World War Two — to try to break the ice in the most serious European security crisis since the end of the Cold War.
Hollande’s office said Putin and Poroshenko shook hands and agreed that detailed talks on a ceasefire between Kiev government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine would begin within a few days.
Poroshenko, brought to power by pro-Western protests which Putin has termed a coup, was photographed looking unsmiling and earnest as he stood with the Russian leader and Merkel.
“It was a normal, serious exchange between two leaders,” an official in Hollande’s office said.
“This marks tentative progress which he (Hollande) welcomes, particularly given this occasion so symbolic for peace,” the official said, adding they also discussed steps such as Russian recognition of Poroshenko’s election and economic relations.
Putin told travelling reporters he welcomed proposals set out by Poroshenko for ending the conflict. However he declinedto say what they were and said Ukraine must halt what he called” punitive” military operations against pro-Russian separatists.
But he added: “I felt the attitude was right as a whole …If this (plan) happens, then it creates conditions for the development of relations in other areas, including the economy.” A senior French official present at the meeting said they had discussed Russian gas supplies to Ukraine, which Moscow has threatened to cut in a dispute about payment of arrears, as well as key elements of Poroshenko’s inaugural address on Saturday.
“If all goes well, they will speak to each other again on Monday to maintain the contact,” the French official said.
Interfax in Ukraine cited Poroshenko as saying he expected a Russian representative to come to Ukraine to discuss his ideas for a settlement plan. He added that he saw “good chances” of it being implemented.
Hollande had invited Poroshenko to Normandy as his personal guest at the last minute in an effort to break the ice between Moscow and Kiev even as fighting continued in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
The rebels shot down a Ukrainian army plane on Friday and killed a member of the interior ministry’s special forces in the separatist stronghold of Slaviansk, where residents said shelling continued all day.
A White House official said Putin and Obama, who had avoided contact with the Russian leader while the two were in Paris on Thursday – also spoke to each other before the lunch.
| New Ukraine President takes office, vows to restore order
KIEV, June 7 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as president of his troubled country today as government forces battled pro-Russian separatists in the east. Taking the oath in an inauguration ceremony in parliament, Poroshenko, who will be the post-Soviet country’s fifth president since independence in 1991, pledged to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and safeguard the rights and freedoms of its citizens. Poroshenko, who won a landslide victory after campaigning on the slogan “Live in a new way”, is expected later today to lay out a programme for restoring stability in the rebellious east and moving Ukraine into the European mainstream. |