Kiev has said the stage is set for long-awaited peace talks with Russia in November, but Moscow insisted that a final decision on a summit must wait for the completion of a controversial troop withdrawal in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday his country was fulfilling conditions agreed with the Kremlin for a summit to take place in the so-called Normandy format, which includes Germany and France.
Government troops were pulling back from the frontline Zolote area and would start to leave the Petrivske sector next week, as long as there were no clashes with Russian-led separatist forces in those areas before then, he said.
The withdrawal of government and militia forces from those districts was a pre-condition for peace talks, as was Ukraine’s acceptance of the so-called Steinmeier formula – a plan on how to sequence elections in war-torn areas and grant them special status within Ukraine – which Kiev adopted in October.
“We have started withdrawing forces and if everything is secure . . . then on November 4th we should start withdrawing from Petrivske,” Mr Zelenskiy said in Kiev alongside visiting Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.
“So I don’t have any doubt that a meeting will take place. The main result is an agreement to end the war.”
‘No date yet’
Mr Zelenskiy, a novice politician and former comedian who took power in May, spoke to German chancellor Angela Merkel about the prospect of peace talks on Wednesday evening. His office said she “welcomed the progress achieved in the separation of forces in Zolote”.
The Kremlin dismissed speculation, however, that a date had been agreed for the Ukrainian, Russian, German and French leaders to meet in Paris in November.
“That’s not so – there is no date yet,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Mr Zelenskiy and his new government want to move quickly to end the war and push through sweeping reforms while their post-election popularity remains high.
While he was elected on strong pledges to fight corruption and end the five-year war, however, his critics have launched street protests over what they see as his readiness to make dangerous and naive compromises with Russia.
‘Not some fool’
Thousands of Ukrainians have demonstrated against signs of “capitulation” in the Steinmeier formula, and ultra-nationalist militia members have moved into Zolote and vowed to defend the area once government troops pull out.
Mr Zelenskiy visited Zolote last Saturday to talk to locals about security and other concerns and meet the volunteer fighters and veterans who oppose his peace bid.
“Listen, I’m the president of this country,” he told one of them in a sharp exchange that has been shown repeatedly on Ukrainian and Russian television. “I’m not some fool . . . I came here to tell you to take away your weapons.”
An official in the presidential administration said the militiamen in Zolote subsequently relinquished their weapons.
Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko said on Wednesday Moscow would only agree to a peace summit once troops had withdrawn from Zolote and Petrivske, “bearing in mind the threats . . . from volunteer nationalist battalions to hinder this process”.
