US, EU, Russia Talks Working Toward Joint Statement on Ukraine
GENEVA—The U.S., Russia and European Union agreed to a framework of steps to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine, including demobilizing militias, vacating seized Ukrainian government buildings, and establishing a political reform program, U.S. and Russian officials said Thursday.
The agreement was reached during more than six hours of talks in Geneva and marked the first tangible step to defuse the political and security crisis in Ukraine since Russia annexed the Crimean region last month, said U.S. and Russian officials.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya, right, to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine on Thursday in Geneva.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Three pro-Russian protesters have been killed and thirteen wounded in the Black Sea port of Mariupol. Ukrainian soldiers opened fire when three hundred pro-Russian separatists stormed the National Guard base throwing Molotov cocktails.
“The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens,” the participants in the talks said in a joint-statement. “All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation or provocative actions.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin told a live Russian TV show he hopes he doesn’t have to send Russian troops into Ukraine but hasn’t ruled it out, accusing the Kyiv government of committing “a serious crime” by using the military to quell unrest.
The negotiations included U.S. Secretary of State
his Russian counterpart,
Sergei Lavrov,
European Union foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton,
and acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Andriy Deshchytsia.
The sides also agreed that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe oversee the implementation of the agreed steps in Ukraine.