Truce in Ukraine Spawns Hope, Doubt in West
Ukraine signed a cease-fire with the pro-Russian rebels on Friday. This could be a real move into ending the five-month conflict. WSJ’s Moscow Bureau Chief Greg White joins Lunch Break’s Tanya Rivero with the details. Photo: Getty
MOSCOW—A tentative peace deal for Ukraine reached Friday raised hopes for a resolution of the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, even as the U.S. and Europe beefed up sanctions aimed at pressuring Russia to leave the battlefield.
After a day of continued fighting, Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country said they had stopped their military operations when the cease-fire went into effect at 6 p.m. local time.
The deal was described as a series of 12 steps toward ending the five-month conflict that has cost at least 2,000 lives. The first step, the cease-fire, was to be followed by a prisoner exchange and delivery of humanitarian aid on Saturday. But the rest of the package, including how much autonomy the rebel-held areas will gain, remained murky.
ON WATCH: NATO leaders viewed a flyby of military aircraft in Wales on Friday. The U.S. and Europe beefed up sanctions to keep pressure on Moscow.
Stefan Rousseau/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Reacting to Russia’s aggressive posture, North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders wrapped up their summit in Wales agreeing to establish a rapid-reaction force that would be able to move quickly into any trouble spots in Eastern Europe.
The so-called spearhead force is intended primarily to deter Russia from intervening in former Soviet-bloc countries that are now members of the 28-nation alliance—and have been watching events in neighboring Ukraine with increasing alarm.
“Here in Wales, we’ve left absolutely no doubt—we will defend every ally,” said President
European Union countries also agreed Friday to expand their sanctions list on Moscow, with the U.S. expected to follow suit soon.
Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko,
who had pledged to rout the rebels and bring Ukraine closer to Europe, said talks would continue during the cease-fire aimed at achieving “a lasting peace.”
He said the protocol details “12 steps to establish peace and stability” in the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions, “with respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian soldiers congratulate a comrade who returned from the battlefield in the port city of Mariupol.
Associated Press
But it wasn’t clear how much control over Donetsk and Luhansk, which border Russia, Kyiv would actually wind up with. Rebel leaders, many of whom want full independence, said the issue of the ultimate legal status of their regions would be a matter for future talks.
The cease-fire leaves a substantial swath of territory in the hands of the rebels. If it holds, it would represent a big gain for Russian President
who already annexed Crimea and supported the rebels despite Western sanctions. Kyiv fears that Moscow will use an enclave under its effective control to hamstring Ukraine’s westward integration.
U.S. and European leaders greeted the peace deal cautiously, while pressing ahead with efforts to raise the economic cost on Moscow.
“We are hopeful but, based on past experience, also skeptical that in fact the separatists will follow through and the Russians will stop violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mr. Obama said. “So, it has to be tested.”
The deal came as the EU was debating more sanctions across Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors. The package agreed to late Friday included cutting off access to capital markets for more Russian state-owned companies, extending restrictions on sales of dual-use (civilian and military) goods, and targeting another two dozen officials for asset freezes and travel bans, according to several diplomats. It was expected to be adopted Monday and take effect Tuesday.
U.S. officials have declined to offer more details about their coming sanctions but have said they would act in consultation with European partners.
Mr. Obama said the sanctions should proceed because the peace deal would take time to implement.
U.K. Prime Minister
also said that a new round of sanctions should go ahead and be lifted only if Russia met certain benchmarks in implementing agreements. “A cease-fire [is] good news; a peace plan would be better news, but sanctions go ahead,” he said.
German officials declined to comment on the cease-fire, citing the need for caution after repeated false starts. Diplomats in Berlin say trust in Mr. Putin has virtually vanished in view of Russia’s increasingly unpredictable behavior and massive military support for the rebels.
But earlier in the day, German Chancellor
had told reporters that Europe would be prepared to suspend the implementation of new sanctions if Moscow took genuine steps to defuse the conflict, for instance by backing a cease-fire.
The peace deal was reached in Belarus’s capital, Minsk, among representatives of Ukraine and the two separatist republics in Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Russia’s ambassador to Kyiv and an official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which will monitor the cease-fire.
As part of the agreement, Mr. Poroshenko said Kyiv would hand more powers to the regions, give special economic status to some areas in Donetsk and Luhansk and guarantee the free use of languages in that predominantly Russian-speaking area.
Mr. Poroshenko reiterated that he had agreed on the outlines of the deal in a telephone call with Mr. Putin on Wednesday. “That’s important in view of the fact that this truce will last for a long time. Now, it’s our shared responsibility,” he said.
Ukraine had advanced on rebels in recent months, but its army was smashed backward by what NATO says was the intervention of Russian troops and heavy weapons in August—a charge that Russia denies. Mr. Poroshenko had little choice but to agree to a cease-fire after the West made clear it wouldn’t send military help.
Still, he said the deal represented a chance to bring an end to the fighting. “The whole world is seeking peace, Ukraine is seeking peace, including millions of residents” in the combat zone, Mr. Poroshenko said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed what he called “careful optimism” that a cease-fire would be agreed to Friday in Minsk, but it’s not clear whether the Russian and Ukrainian proposals are compatible. Meanwhile, fighting has continued in eastern Ukraine, despite the prospect of a cease-fire. (Photo: Getty)
Leonid Kuchma,
the former Ukrainian president who represented Kyiv at the talks, and other negotiators said the deal calls for the sides to pull back heavy weapons, though they didn’t provide details.
It also was unclear whether a buffer zone Kyiv wanted would be set up along the Russia-Ukraine border to keep reinforcements out of the rebel-held territories. There was also no word on the full amnesty sought by rebel leaders.
Russian officials were quick to hail the agreement. “In Moscow, we hope that all provisions of the document and agreements that were reached will be closely observed by [all] sides, and that the negotiation process will continue for the complete resolution of the crisis in Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov
was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko faces reporters on the golf course at the NATO Summit on Friday in Newport, Wales.
Getty Images
The truce could work to the advantage of both Russia and Ukraine, giving Mr. Poroshenko a chance to rebuild his country’s defensive capabilities, while Mr. Putin will be able to avoid a more serious break with the West, said
Adrian Karatnycky,
a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.
“The short-term interest of everyone is to have a cease-fire and take a breather,” Mr. Karatnycky said.
Ukraine could leave the conflict frozen without recognizing the surrender of territory, much as neighbor Moldova does with the Russia-backed Transnistria territory. Keeping the area as part of Ukraine could give Moscow an effective veto over Ukraine’s foreign policy and hamstring attempts to reform the country, Mr. Karatnycky said.
Ukrainian soldiers stand guard Friday at a checkpoint near the eastern Ukrainian city of Debalcevo.
European Pressphoto Agency
Rebel leaders at the talks said that their acceptance of a cease-fire “doesn’t mean that our course of separation has been changed in any way. It is a necessary measure to stop the bloodshed,” said
Igor Plotnitsky,
the leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
Mikhail Zurabov,
the Russian representative, said remaining differences would be ironed out in technical discussions over the next three days. He didn’t elaborate on what they were.
Some Ukrainian politicians reacted to the deal with suspicion.
“We want peace, but we don’t want peace at the same price as with Crimea,” pro-European lawmaker Oleksandra Kuzhel told Interfax, referring to Russia’s annexation of that region in March.
In the hours before the negotiators gathered in Minsk, fighting in eastern Ukraine continued. A Ukrainian military spokesman said that seven soldiers had been killed in the last 24 hours.
Ukrainian soldiers congratulate a comrade who returned from the battlefield in the port city of Mariupol.
Associated Press
Officials on both sides reported shelling outside the port city of Mariupol. The Ukrainian spokesman said Russian forces were using heavy weapons against the Ukrainian positions outside the city.
Kyiv said its forces destroyed rebel positions around Luhansk, although there were also reports from the separatists there that Ukrainian troops were continuing to pull back.
Roman Martynyuk, a volunteer who has spent the last six months shipping donated food and clothes from western Ukraine to the army, said he was concerned the Russian army would use the cease-fire to regroup before seizing the rest of Luhansk and Donetsk region, then launch assaults on neighboring regions and trying to destabilize central authorities in Kyiv.
“Appetite comes with eating,” he said. “At the same time, our (leaders) won’t use the chance to rebuild the army and will instead prosecute ‘deserters,’ treat the injured and play at elections. Our (leaders) are playing into Putin’s hands.”
—Gregory L. White, Colleen McCain Nelson and Laurence Norman contributed to this article.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com
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