KIEV Ukraine On the eve of a NATO summit meeting focused on Russian aggression President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia unveiled on Wednesday a seven-point peace plan for Ukraine while President Obama and other Western leaders tried to keep the spotlight on the Kremlins role in stoking the conflict there and the penalties it should suffer for doing so.
Never at a loss for theatrical flair Mr. Putin announced the plan soon after arriving on a state visit to Mongolia brandishing a notebook page on which the first point was that both sides end active offensive operations."
Mr. Putins peace plan jotted out during a plane ride over Siberia muddied the diplomatic waters leaving the West an excuse for delaying punitive sanctions that would also hurt European economies on the verge of a new recession. And it was expected to have some appeal to war-weary Ukrainians.
The ultimate effect coming after Russian troops intervened in Ukraine last week to beat back a successful government offensive may be to leave the country as a loose coalition that Moscow could still dominate which critics of the Russian president say is his real aim.
The timing of Mr. Putins announcement was lost on no one however as he and Western leaders engaged in a global chess game over the fate of Ukraine. In Tallinn Estonia Mr. Obama made some of his harshest comments to date about the Kremlins armed intervention in Ukraine and hinted that NATO might now be willing to provide military assistance to Kiev. France postponed delivery of one of two warships it is building for Russia.
NATO leaders including Mr. Obama are to meet in Newport Wales on Thursday to discuss bolstering the alliance including a new rapid deployment force intended to respond to future Russian military threats and a reaffirmation of its commitment to its smaller members. In addition European leaders are contemplating a fourth harsher round of sanctions against Russia.
Mr. Putins plan seemed to raise more questions than it answered. First there was no mechanism for implementation. Second just hours earlier his own spokesman had repeated the Russian position widely criticized as implausible that Moscow could not negotiate a cease-fire because it was not a direct party to the conflict.
Analysts suggested that Mr. Putins strategy is to convince Kiev that it must negotiate not fight and to reinforce the idea that the overall outcome depended on Moscow.
Russia wants to show that it is in command of what is happening" said Fyodor Lukyanov editor of a prominent Russian foreign policy journal. For Russia it is important first to prevent the Ukrainians from thinking that they could win militarily and to accept the separatist leaders as partners in negotiations."
The details of the peace deal were sketchy at best entangled in complicated diplomacy and domestic politics. But it was clear from various somewhat confused and contradictory statements that Mr. Putin and the Ukrainian president Petro O. Poroshenko had held an extensive discussion on the issue by telephone early Wednesday.
At first Mr. Poroshenkos office issued a vague announcement that the two leaders had agreed to a lasting cease-fire." The statement was diluted later to say only that both leaders had endorsed the need for a cease-fire and that Mr. Poroshenko hoped negotiations would begin in earnest on Friday. Mr. Putin said his notes had emerged from the telephone conversation.
In announcing the plan Mr. Putin said he expected Ukraine and the separatists to wrap up an agreement after a new round of negotiations in Minsk Belarus on Friday. Ukraine Russia and Europe are all party to the talks there and they include representatives of the separatists. The two-day NATO summit meeting is also scheduled to end Friday.
Aside from the cease-fire the plan laid out by Mr. Putin called for Ukrainian artillery to pull back and out of range of the eastern separatists strongholds; an end to airstrikes; an exchange of all detainees; opening up humanitarian corridors for residents of the separatist areas; repairing damaged infrastructure; and deploying international observers to monitor the cease-fire.
It made no mention of autonomy for the separatist eastern regions the central political demand that Russia has emphasized since March. That is widely seen as critical to the Kremlins long-term goal of maintaining influence over Ukraines domestic affairs and blocking any future attempt to join NATO.
A previous cease-fire collapsed after 10 days in June and a long line of critics starting with Mr. Obama gave little hope that this plan might succeed.
We havent seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires" Mr. Obama told a news conference in Estonia. Having said that if in fact Russia is prepared to stop financing arming training in many cases joining with Russian troops activities in Ukraine and is serious about a political settlement that is something we all hope for."
Mr. Obama devoted his main speech in Estonia to a scathing attack on Russias actions against Ukraine.
It is a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine a sovereign and independent European nation" he said in the speech to more than 1800 students young professionals and civic and political leaders at a concert hall. It challenges that most basic of principles of our international system: that borders cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun that nations have the right to determine their own future."
President Franois Hollande of France in a statement about the delayed delivery of the warship to Russia said he had decided that despite the prospects of a possible cease-fire in Ukraine the conditions for France to deliver the first warship are not to date in place." The decision was one of the most concrete indications yet of the willingness of Western governments to become more assertive in confronting Russia despite concerns that the European economy could be further hurt.
France had agreed in 2011 to a $1.6 billion deal to build two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy and to train the Russians in operating them. The warships are designed to carry up to 30 helicopters 60 armored vehicles 13 tanks and 700 soldiers.
In June more than 400 Russian sailors arrived in Saint-Nazaire a shipbuilding city on the Atlantic coast southwest of Paris to begin training on the first of the two ships.
Russia sought to play down the significance of the delay. The Defense Ministry doesnt see any tragedy in this though of course it is unpleasant and lays certain tension on our cooperation with the French partners" the deputy defense minister Yuri Borisov was quoted as saying by Russias state-run news agency Itar-Tass.
In Kiev the idea of a cease-fire was received with mixed emotions.
There is open hostility to the idea that Russia will be able to dictate terms to its weaker neighbor after already wrenching away the Crimean peninsula in March. Any compromise after months of condemning the separatists as terrorists" risks weakening Mr. Poroshenko in central and western Ukraine.
Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk called Mr. Putins proposal an attempt to confuse the international community" before the NATO summit meeting and the expected announcement of new sanctions from the European Union.
Putins real plan is the destruction of Ukraine and the resumption of the U.S.S.R." Mr. Yatsenyuk said according to a statement posted on a government website. Peace will come only once Russia withdraws its troops and proxy force it said.
But many Ukrainians horrified by the mounting toll of more than 2600 dead and uneasy about the economic costs for a country already on the edge of bankruptcy want an end to the violence. Winter is approaching and the other confrontation with Russia over gas sales seems unlikely to be resolved while fighting rages in the east.
We are in a situation where any kind of cease-fire would be progress" said Olexander Scherba an ambassador at large in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Last week was devastating after Russia started this open invasion of Ukraine."
Russia has repeatedly denied sending troops or arms to Ukraine but last week separatist forces opened a new front along the coast and broke the Ukrainian forces siege of the separatist centers of Donetsk and Luhansk.
There is a long road ahead before any real settlement can be reached analysts noted. Moscow does not fully control the separatists; nor is it clear that Kiev can automatically rein in the armed militias it has unleashed alongside its military in the east.
Vladislav Brig a senior official in the self-declared Donetsk Peoples Republic said by telephone that the rebels expected Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the entire region as a condition for peace. The negotiating side here is not Russia; it is the Donetsk Peoples Republic" he said. We will stop the offensive when Ukrainian troops leave our territory."
Ukraine has said repeatedly that it will not contemplate a full withdrawal from the Donbass region. It depends on Russia" Mr. Scherba said. Russia is the one that started this and can bring it to an end."
Reporting was contributed by Andrew Roth and Alexandra Odynova from Moscow; Julie Hirschfeld Davis from Tallinn Estonia; Rick Gladstone from New York; and Maa de la Baume from Paris.
KIEV Ukraine On the eve of a NATO summit meeting focused on Russian aggression President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia unveiled on Wednesday a seven-point peace plan for Ukraine while President Obama and other Western leaders tried to keep the spotlight on the Kremlins role in stoking the conflict there and the penalties it should suffer for doing so.
Never at a loss for theatrical flair Mr. Putin announced the plan soon after arriving on a state visit to Mongolia brandishing a notebook page on which the first point was that both sides end active offensive operations."
Mr. Putins peace plan jotted out during a plane ride over Siberia muddied the diplomatic waters leaving the West an excuse for delaying punitive sanctions that would also hurt European economies on the verge of a new recession. And it was expected to have some appeal to war-weary Ukrainians.
The ultimate effect coming after Russian troops intervened in Ukraine last week to beat back a successful government offensive may be to leave the country as a loose coalition that Moscow could still dominate which critics of the Russian president say is his real aim.
The timing of Mr. Putins announcement was lost on no one however as he and Western leaders engaged in a global chess game over the fate of Ukraine. In Tallinn Estonia Mr. Obama made some of his harshest comments to date about the Kremlins armed intervention in Ukraine and hinted that NATO might now be willing to provide military assistance to Kiev. France postponed delivery of one of two warships it is building for Russia.
NATO leaders including Mr. Obama are to meet in Newport Wales on Thursday to discuss bolstering the alliance including a new rapid deployment force intended to respond to future Russian military threats and a reaffirmation of its commitment to its smaller members. In addition European leaders are contemplating a fourth harsher round of sanctions against Russia.
Mr. Putins plan seemed to raise more questions than it answered. First there was no mechanism for implementation. Second just hours earlier his own spokesman had repeated the Russian position widely criticized as implausible that Moscow could not negotiate a cease-fire because it was not a direct party to the conflict.
Analysts suggested that Mr. Putins strategy is to convince Kiev that it must negotiate not fight and to reinforce the idea that the overall outcome depended on Moscow.
Russia wants to show that it is in command of what is happening" said Fyodor Lukyanov editor of a prominent Russian foreign policy journal. For Russia it is important first to prevent the Ukrainians from thinking that they could win militarily and to accept the separatist leaders as partners in negotiations."
The details of the peace deal were sketchy at best entangled in complicated diplomacy and domestic politics. But it was clear from various somewhat confused and contradictory statements that Mr. Putin and the Ukrainian president Petro O. Poroshenko had held an extensive discussion on the issue by telephone early Wednesday.
At first Mr. Poroshenkos office issued a vague announcement that the two leaders had agreed to a lasting cease-fire." The statement was diluted later to say only that both leaders had endorsed the need for a cease-fire and that Mr. Poroshenko hoped negotiations would begin in earnest on Friday. Mr. Putin said his notes had emerged from the telephone conversation.
In announcing the plan Mr. Putin said he expected Ukraine and the separatists to wrap up an agreement after a new round of negotiations in Minsk Belarus on Friday. Ukraine Russia and Europe are all party to the talks there and they include representatives of the separatists. The two-day NATO summit meeting is also scheduled to end Friday.
Aside from the cease-fire the plan laid out by Mr. Putin called for Ukrainian artillery to pull back and out of range of the eastern separatists strongholds; an end to airstrikes; an exchange of all detainees; opening up humanitarian corridors for residents of the separatist areas; repairing damaged infrastructure; and deploying international observers to monitor the cease-fire.
It made no mention of autonomy for the separatist eastern regions the central political demand that Russia has emphasized since March. That is widely seen as critical to the Kremlins long-term goal of maintaining influence over Ukraines domestic affairs and blocking any future attempt to join NATO.
A previous cease-fire collapsed after 10 days in June and a long line of critics starting with Mr. Obama gave little hope that this plan might succeed.
We havent seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires" Mr. Obama told a news conference in Estonia. Having said that if in fact Russia is prepared to stop financing arming training in many cases joining with Russian troops activities in Ukraine and is serious about a political settlement that is something we all hope for."
Mr. Obama devoted his main speech in Estonia to a scathing attack on Russias actions against Ukraine.
It is a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine a sovereign and independent European nation" he said in the speech to more than 1800 students young professionals and civic and political leaders at a concert hall. It challenges that most basic of principles of our international system: that borders cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun that nations have the right to determine their own future."
President Franois Hollande of France in a statement about the delayed delivery of the warship to Russia said he had decided that despite the prospects of a possible cease-fire in Ukraine the conditions for France to deliver the first warship are not to date in place." The decision was one of the most concrete indications yet of the willingness of Western governments to become more assertive in confronting Russia despite concerns that the European economy could be further hurt.
France had agreed in 2011 to a $1.6 billion deal to build two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy and to train the Russians in operating them. The warships are designed to carry up to 30 helicopters 60 armored vehicles 13 tanks and 700 soldiers.
In June more than 400 Russian sailors arrived in Saint-Nazaire a shipbuilding city on the Atlantic coast southwest of Paris to begin training on the first of the two ships.
Russia sought to play down the significance of the delay. The Defense Ministry doesnt see any tragedy in this though of course it is unpleasant and lays certain tension on our cooperation with the French partners" the deputy defense minister Yuri Borisov was quoted as saying by Russias state-run news agency Itar-Tass.
In Kiev the idea of a cease-fire was received with mixed emotions.
There is open hostility to the idea that Russia will be able to dictate terms to its weaker neighbor after already wrenching away the Crimean peninsula in March. Any compromise after months of condemning the separatists as terrorists" risks weakening Mr. Poroshenko in central and western Ukraine.
Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk called Mr. Putins proposal an attempt to confuse the international community" before the NATO summit meeting and the expected announcement of new sanctions from the European Union.
Putins real plan is the destruction of Ukraine and the resumption of the U.S.S.R." Mr. Yatsenyuk said according to a statement posted on a government website. Peace will come only once Russia withdraws its troops and proxy force it said.
But many Ukrainians horrified by the mounting toll of more than 2600 dead and uneasy about the economic costs for a country already on the edge of bankruptcy want an end to the violence. Winter is approaching and the other confrontation with Russia over gas sales seems unlikely to be resolved while fighting rages in the east.
We are in a situation where any kind of cease-fire would be progress" said Olexander Scherba an ambassador at large in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Last week was devastating after Russia started this open invasion of Ukraine."
Russia has repeatedly denied sending troops or arms to Ukraine but last week separatist forces opened a new front along the coast and broke the Ukrainian forces siege of the separatist centers of Donetsk and Luhansk.
There is a long road ahead before any real settlement can be reached analysts noted. Moscow does not fully control the separatists; nor is it clear that Kiev can automatically rein in the armed militias it has unleashed alongside its military in the east.
Vladislav Brig a senior official in the self-declared Donetsk Peoples Republic said by telephone that the rebels expected Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the entire region as a condition for peace. The negotiating side here is not Russia; it is the Donetsk Peoples Republic" he said. We will stop the offensive when Ukrainian troops leave our territory."
Ukraine has said repeatedly that it will not contemplate a full withdrawal from the Donbass region. It depends on Russia" Mr. Scherba said. Russia is the one that started this and can bring it to an end."
Reporting was contributed by Andrew Roth and Alexandra Odynova from Moscow; Julie Hirschfeld Davis from Tallinn Estonia; Rick Gladstone from New York; and Maa de la Baume from Paris.
