UPDATE 4-Ukraine’s new leader stands up to Moscow over Crimea and Europe
* Poroshenko takes uncompromising line on Crimea, EU
* Seeks peace in east, offers corridor for fighters to leave
* Scornful response from pro-Russian separatists
* Putin orders tighter controls at Russia-Ukraine border
(Updates with Putin order, Russian foreign ministry statement,
Kerry)
KYIV, June 7 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s new president Petro
Poroshenko said his country would never give up Crimea and would
not compromise on its path towards closer ties with Europe,
spelling out a defiant message to Russia in his inaugural speech
on Saturday.
The 48-year-old billionaire took the oath of office before
parliament, buoyed by Western support but facing a crisis in
relations with Russia as a separatist uprising seethes in the
east of his country.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March, weeks after
street protests ousted Poroshenko’s pro-Moscow predecessor
Viktor Yanukovich, in a move that has provoked the deepest
crisis in relations with the West since the Cold War.
“Citizens of Ukraine will never enjoy the beauty of peace
unless we settle our relations with Russia. Russia occupied
Crimea, which was, is, and will be, Ukrainian soil,” Poroshenko
said in a speech that drew a standing ovation.
He said he had delivered that message to Russian President
Vladimir Putin when the two met on Friday at a World War Two
anniversary ceremony in France.
There is no prospect of Russia reversing its takeover of
Crimea, but in what could be a positive signal from Moscow,
Russian news agencies reported Putin had ordered the Federal
Security Service to strengthen protection of the border with
Ukraine and prevent people crossing illegally.
The move was potentially significant because Ukraine and
Western governments have been pressing Moscow to stop what they
say is a flow of Russian arms and fighters into eastern Ukraine.
Russia denies it is backing the uprising but journalists
have encountered Russian nationals among the separatist ranks.
“NOT TRADE-OFF”
Poroshenko, who earned his fortune as a confectionery
entrepreneur and is known locally as the “Chocolate King”, said
he intended to sign the economic part of an association deal
with the European Union as a step towards full membership.
That idea is anathema to Moscow, which wants to keep Ukraine
in its own post-Soviet sphere of influence.
His voice swelling with emotion, Poroshenko stressed the
need for a united Ukraine and the importance of ending the
conflict that threatens to further split the country of 45
million people. He said it would not become a looser federalised
state, as advocated by Russia.
“There can be no trade-off about Crimea and about the
European choice and about the governmental system. All other
things can be negotiated and discussed at the negotiation table.
Any attempts at internal or external enslavement of Ukraine will
meet with resolute resistance,” he said.
Since Poroshenko’s election, government forces have stepped
up their operations against the separatists who want to split
with Kyiv and join Russia. The rebels have fought back, turning
parts of the Russian-speaking east into a war zone.
Poroshenko offered to provide a safe corridor for Russian
fighters to go home. “Please, lay down the guns and I guarantee
immunity to all those who don’t have bloodshed on their hands.”
Switching from Ukrainian into Russian, he promised to visit
the east with guarantees of Russian-language rights and
proposals for decentralisation that would give its regions a
bigger say in running their own affairs.
But a scornful response from the rebels, who have declared
their own “people’s republics”, spelled out the scale of the
separatist challenge facing him.
“What they (Kyiv’s leaders) really want is one-sided
disarmament and for us to surrender. That will never happen in
the Donetsk People’s Republic,” a top separatist official,
Fyodor Berezin, said by telephone from Donetsk, an industrial
hub where rebels have occupied strategic points.
“As long as Ukrainian troops are on our soil, I can see that
all Poroshenko wants is subjugation. The fight will continue.”
AT ODDS WITH MOSCOW
Poroshenko won a landslide election on May 25 after
promising to bridge the east-west divide that has split the
country and thrust it into a battle for survival.
Many Ukrainians hope the election of the former government
minister, who is married with four children, will bring an end
to the most tumultuous period in their post-Soviet history.
More than 100 people were shot dead by police in Kyiv by
police in the street protests that eventually brought Yanukovich
down. In the east, scores of people, including separatist
fighters and government forces, have been killed since April.
The uprising is not the only challenge facing Poroshenko,
who inherits a country on the verge of bankruptcy and rated by
watchdogs as one of the most corrupt and ill-governed in Europe.
Kyiv is also at odds with Moscow over Russian gas. Russia is
threatening to cut supplies as early as next week unless Ukraine
settles its debt, the amount of which is disputed.
Poroshenko’s speech drew an ovation from guests at a
ceremony attended by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite,
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and senior EU officials.
Cheering crowds later greeted him on a walk in blazing
sunshine on the square in front of Kyiv’s St Sophia’s Cathedral,
which was decked out with the blue and yellow national flags.
On a visit to France, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
said Washington hoped for a reduction in Russia-Ukraine tensions
in the next few days, including a possible ceasefire.
Russia’s foreign ministry, in its first comments after
Poroshenko’s swearing-in, acknowledged his inauguration but did
not comment on his speech, calling instead for the release of
two Russian journalists detained in Ukraine.
But reaction was hostile in eastern Ukraine, where
government forces shelled rebel positions in Slaviansk and
manned checkpoints on roads into the city. In another eastern
city, Luhansk, separatist leader Valery Bolotov was emphatic in
his rejection of Poroshenko and Ukrainian rule.
“The Ukrainians have made their choice and they must live
with it. As for our republic, we have no diplomatic relations
with Ukraine,” he told journalists, wearing combat fatigues in a
conference room hung with crystal chandeliers.
“Today Ukraine got a new president and now the blood of our
people and of Ukrainians will lie on his conscience.”
(Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly in Moscow, Thomas Grove in
Slaviansk and Alissa de Carbonnel in Luhansk; Writing by Mark
Trevelyan; Editing by David Holmes)