Russia, Ukraine Leaders to Meet in New Peace Push
Ukraine released video footage on Tuesday of what it said were Russian soldiers captured on its territory, only hours before the presidents of the two countries were due to meet to discuss resolving the conflict pitting Kyiv against pro-Moscow separatist rebels.
Kyiv ratcheted up tensions by releasing footage purporting to show 10 Russian soldiers captured on its territory who a Moscow military source claimed had crossed into Ukraine “by accident.”
Tuesday’s video provided the strongest evidence yet to back up Kyiv’s claims that Moscow is fueling the insurgency, sharply raising the stakes before a meeting between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Minsk, Belarus
The meeting, which includes senior European Union officials and the leaders of Kazakhstan and Belarus, represents a fresh diplomatic push to end five months of fighting that has left over 2,000 people dead.
Russian paratroopers
Ukrainian media on Tuesday aired footage purporting to show the Russian paratroopers, captured near Donetsk on Monday, confessing to entering Ukraine in armored convoys.
“We traveled here in columns not along the roads but across the fields,” said one of the men who identified himself as corporal Ivan Milchakov from the 331st parachute regiment based in central Russia.
“I didn’t even see when we crossed the border,” Milchakov said.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the rebellion in Ukraine and demands Kyiv halt its punishing offensive.
A Russian defense ministry source described the captured soldiers Tuesday as having crossed into Ukraine “by accident.”
The soldiers had been “taking part in patrolling a section of the Russian-Ukrainian border; they crossed it most likely by accident, on an unequipped, unmarked section,” Russian news agencies quoted the source as saying.
Ukraine rejected that explanation. “This wasn’t a mistake, but a special mission they were carrying out,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice slammed Russia for “military incursions” into Ukraine using artillery, air defense systems, tanks and troops, that she said represented a “significant escalation” in the conflict.
Minsk meetings
Tuesday’s talks are to begin after 1100 GMT in Minsk. It was unclear whether Poroshenko and Putin would hold bilateral talks.
Poroshenko also held separate talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, the summit host.
Meanwhile, local authorities in the main rebel bastion of Donetsk, Ukraine, said three civilians were killed in shelling overnight as the army pummels insurgent fighters hunkered down there.
Lysenko also said separatists were attacking the southeastern border town of Novoazovsk “at this very minute” and Ukrainian forces had destroyed 12 armored infantry vehicles in the area.
The Ukrainian military said that 12 soldiers had been killed and 19 wounded in the past 24 hours.
Fighting has intensified in the run-up to the key talks in Minsk with the rebels appearing to launch a counteroffensive after losing swathes of territory to a push by government forces.
Parliamentary move
Poroshenko and Putin last met briefly in France at ceremonies to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings at the beginning of June.
The meeting in Minsk comes a day after Poroshenko dissolved parliament and called for early elections on October 26. In a televised statement, he said the vote is necessary in order to “cleanse” parliament.
Poroshenko said the last parliamentary election in 2012 was neither free nor fair. He said most lawmakers have lost the Ukrainian people’s trust, noting there are “quite a few” members of parliament who support pro-Russian separatists in the east.
The U.S. has also condemned Russia for sending a convoy of 200 trucks full of purported humanitarian aid into Ukraine last week. The Kyiv government did not approve the shipment and called it a Russian invasion. It also said Russia did not wait for the Red Cross to complete its inspection.
Poroshenko’s office said he told European Council President Herman Van Rompuy by telephone Monday that he is concerned about Russian plans to send another similar convoy into Ukraine.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AFP and AP.