Says ‘no prospects’ for peace plan to end Ukraine conflict
Russian President Vladimir Putin convened top officials Monday to consider recognising the independence of Russia-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
The meeting of the presidential Security Council comes amid Western fears that Russia could invade Ukraine any moment, using skirmishes in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for an attack. Putin said that he no longer felt that a key 2015 plan agreed with France, Germany and Kyiv would be able to resolve Ukraine’s separatist conflict.
“We understand that there are no prospects” for the implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace accords, agreed in the capital of Belarus to end fighting between Ukraine’s army and pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country, Putin told his security council. Putin warned that Western powers were using Moscow’s feud with Ukraine to threaten Russia’s own security and said he was considering recognising the independence of two breakaway Russian-backed regions.
Openly backing the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine would effectively put to an end an already shaky peace plan and dramatically increase the likelihood of an all-out Russian invasion. Putin’s statement follows televised statements by separatist leaders, who pleaded with Putin to recognise them as independent states and sign friendship treaties envisaging military aid to protect them from what they described as the ongoing Ukrainian military offensive..
The Kremlin initially signalled its reluctance to make the move that would effectively shatter a 2015 peace deal for eastern Ukraine that marked a major diplomatic coup for Moscow, requiring Ukrainian authorities to offer a broad self-rule to the rebel regions.
Russia’s military said on Monday that troops and border guards had prevented a “diversionary reconnaissance” group from breaching Russia’s border from Ukrainian territory and that five people had been killed, Russian news agencies reported.
Ukraine rejected the report, calling it “fake news”, and said no Ukrainian forces were present in the Rostov region where the incident was alleged to have taken place. Interfax cited the Russian military as saying that Ukrainian armed vehicles had been destroyed.
Meanwhile, the US and Russian presidents tentatively agreed to meet in a last-ditch effort to stave off a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, even as sustained shelling continued Monday in a conflict in eastern Ukraine that Western powers fear could provide the spark for a broader war.
If Russia invades, as the US warns Moscow has already decided to do, the meeting will be off. Still the prospect of a face-to-face summit resuscitated hopes that diplomacy could prevent a devastating conflict, which would result in massive casualties and huge economic damage across Europe, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy.