Ukraine on the brink
European leaders take peace plan to Moscow
Merkel, Hollande take new
Ukraine peace plan to Moscow
Updated 1621 GMT (0021 HKT) February 6, 2015
Story highlights
- German Chancellor says that she hopes for a ceasefire and that there is no military solution
- French and German leaders take a new plan for peace negotiations to Moscow
- Russia must pull back troops and weapons, close its border with Ukraine, Kerry says
(CNN)German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and French President Francois
Hollande arrived in Moscow on Friday bearing a new
proposal for peace negotiations to end the bitter conflict in eastern Ukraine.
They were to meet with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, a day after taking their
plan to Ukraine's leaders in Kiev.
The new diplomatic push comes as a worsening conflict in eastern Ukraine
is taking an increasingly heavy toll on civilians.
Speaking in Berlin before her departure for Moscow, Merkel said she
hoped to secure a ceasefire but the prospects were not certain.
She added, though, that she was "sure that there is no military
solution to the conflict" and that she and Hollande would "work
against this escalation with all our powers to stop this horror" as they
meet with Putin.
Merkel made clear that she would not do a deal with Russia that bypasses
Ukraine's leadership, saying she "will not decide anything over the heads
of anyone." The solution must be in line with a previous peace plan agreed
to in Minsk, Belarus, in September, she said.
Putin: Still strong in Russia 01:23
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Russia, Ukraine and separatist leaders all signed that pact, but
continued fighting left it in shreds. It's not yet clear how the new proposal
differs from the Minsk agreement.
Hollande said Thursday that the joint proposal for new negotiations
would be "based upon the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
The pair hope the proposal will be acceptable to all parties in the
conflict, he said. But he added that "the option of negotiation, of
diplomacy, cannot be extended indefinitely."
A spokesman for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, called the upcoming meeting
between Putin, Merkel and Hollande "a positive step in settlement of the
Ukrainian crisis."
Western leaders and Kiev accuse Russia of fostering the conflict by
providing weapons and training to the pro-Russian separatists battling
Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as sending regular
Russian troops over the border to fight. Moscow denies the claims.
Civilians at risk
Amid the diplomatic maneuverings, there were reports from Ukraine on
Friday suggesting that more civilians could be evacuated from current conflict
zones. Both sides in the conflict have been blamed for shelling civilian areas.
Why is there conflict in Ukraine? 02:13
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The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said on its website that
it had offered Kiev the chance for civilians to leave the city of Debaltseve,
northeast of Donetsk city, where shells have been falling for days.
Debaltseve is under government control, and police efforts to evacuate
civilians have been underway for some days, hindered by the shelling of the
main road out of the city.
According to the Ukrainian counterterrorist operation media office, the
shelling in the area has decreased since Thursday. But it's unclear how many
civilians still remain in Debaltseve.
The latest government statement said that arrangements for the
evacuation of people from dangerous areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions
were "ongoing."
The media office of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic said
the evacuation of civilians had started in the town of Chernukhino, in Luhansk,
and would continue until the afternoon.
Civilians increasingly are falling victim to the violence, with at least
224 killed and more than 540 injured in the final three weeks of January, the U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights said Tuesday.
Kerry: Pull back weapons
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking on a visit to
Kiev on Thursday, insisted that the ball was in
Moscow's court to resolve the crisis in its neighboring country.
He called on Moscow to take three steps he said would enable a
diplomatic solution "that is staring everyone in the face."
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in Kiev with U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry, offers his glasses to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
EXPAND IMAGE
Those are: pulling back heavy weapons beyond the range of civilian
populations, removing foreign troops and heavy equipment from Ukraine, and
closing the Russia-Ukraine border.
Kerry said no one wanted conflict with Russia, but "we cannot close
our eyes" to tanks, heavy weapons and soldiers crossing the border from
Russia into Ukraine.
Russian leaders must be blind if they keep denying that forces from
their country have crossed the border, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk added.
"If they need, I can give them my glasses," he said. "It
is crystal clear that (the) Russian military is on the ground," he said.
"We are not fighting so-called rebels or guerrillas. We are fighting with
the Russian regular army."
NATO: Separatists pushing for more contiguous area 09:27
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Peskov, the Putin spokesman, told CNN that Kerry's remarks in Ukraine
"just shows the unwillingness and inability of the United States to
participate in settlement of the Ukrainian crisis."
He added, "As for Russian tanks, allegedly crossing
Russian-Ukrainian border, we've commented on this before -- there are no
Russian tanks or army in Ukraine, such accusations are not true."
Munich meetings
The annual Munich Security Conference starts Friday in Germany, when the
crisis in Ukraine is likely again to top the agenda.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he would hold bilateral
meetings in Munich this weekend with Kerry, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden,
Poroshenko and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Will the U.S. offer Ukraine lethal aid? 01:20
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Biden is also holding meetings with European leaders Friday in Brussels,
Belgium.
The European Union and United States have already imposed a series of
financial sanctions targeting Russian interests and separatist leaders in Ukraine.
U.S. officials this week said the United States is considering sending
so-called defensive lethal aid to the Ukrainian government, which could include
anti-tank, anti-air and anti-mortar systems.
NATO
defense ministers decided Thursday to
establish new NATO command and control units in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, close to Russia's western borders.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Radina Gigova, Laura Akhoun, Alla Eshchenko,
Anna Maja Rappard and Erin McLaughlin contributed to this report, as did
journalist Victoria Butenko in Kiev.
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