Ukrainian leaders to hold third round of national unity talks
Ukrainian leaders claim progress; Russian officials make conciliatory gestures
(about 11 hours later)
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian leaders were due to hold a third session of roundtable unity talks Wednesday in the south of the beleaguered country, picking another locale outside Kiev to show the interim government’s desire to build better relationships with regional representatives on their home turf.
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian leaders said Wednesday that their country was starting to stabilize, as the Kremlin repeated its assurances that it was pulling its military back from the border and pro-Russian separatists in the east continued to be on the defensive.
The talks, the third in two weeks, were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, which lies outside the restive eastern part of the country. Acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia said the interim government was keen to forge better ties with representatives from around Ukraine.
Ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, fears that Ukraine was on the verge of a bloody civil war — or being invaded by Russia — appeared to recede. Russian officials made conciliatory gestures, while Ukraine’s wealthiest man escalated his campaign against separatists in the country’s industrial heartland in the east, the Donetsk Basin, also known as Donbas.
The talks, although characterized mostly by venting and grandstanding, all on live television, produced a “memorandum of mutual understanding and peace” which was passed on to Ukraine’s parliament. The parliament approved the memorandum, which gave assurances about the status of the Russian language and lent support to a decentralization of power in the country, two key demands from eastern Ukrainians. No time frame or specifics were given by the lawmakers.
“Those who represent and control Donbas have declared that no bandit republic will run Donbas or Ukraine,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the acting prime minister, said during a third round of national unity talks in the shipyard city of Mykolaiv. “I consider this a result of our joint work.”
Pro-Russian separatists, who have seized government buildings, clashed with Ukrainian troops and declared new sovereign republics in the east of the country following a chaotic referendum, have not attended any of the talks. But Western diplomats have hailed the gatherings’ success in getting regional representatives of the country talking to each other.
The relief came as billionaire Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov renewed an impassioned plea to push back against the separatists, who have taken over buildings and cities in the east.
The latest round of talks comes four days before the country goes to the polls in Sunday’s presidential and mayoral elections, which could determine the very makeup of the country and its alignment between the West and Russia. The separatists have said they will boycott the elections.
A plea by Ukraine’s richest man, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, for demonstrations against the Russian-backed separatists every day at noon have so far met with a low-keyed response. At the first of those planned demonstrations on Tuesday in Mariupol, most of his own 300,000 workers stayed on their jobs.
Akhmetov also issued a statement Wednesday thanking everyone who participated, saying more might have joined if not for being intimidated by the threat of violence. And he urged people to stand up to separatists who he said were “impostors” who were deceiving residents in the Donets Basin.
“Fight, fight and fight again for your happiness, your present and your future!” the tycoon said.
“Fight, fight and fight again for your happiness, your present and your future!” the tycoon said.
But many Ukrainians still saw Akhmetov’s gesture as a welcome, if symbolic, attempt to end the country’s strife while European leaders searched for a diplomatic solution to the crisis before the elections. It followed his decision last week to form worker patrols to help police restore order on the streets of Mariupol, an industrial port city in southeastern Ukraine.
Some critics having questioned Akhmetov’s timing, saying that he appeared to have waited until he knew that Russia was unlikely to invade before deciding last week to form worker patrols to help police restore order in Mariupol, an industrial port city in the southeast. Nonetheless, many Ukrainians welcomed his efforts.
In Donetsk, several hundred pro-Ukrainian residents rallied just before noon Tuesday at Donbas Arena. Organizers played the noise of a deafening factory whistle and urged the crowd to download a version of it that they could sound at noon every day as a show of unity.
Russia has decided to pull its troops back from its border with Ukraine “as an additional step to help create a favorable environment for the upcoming presidential election,” President Vladimir Putin told reporters in Shanghai on Wednesday. The Russian leader called the election a “positive step” but also said that “it will be very difficult for us to build relations with those who come to power with punitive operations still underway in southeast Ukraine.”
But at the entrance to Akhmetov’s Ilyich steel plant in Mariupol, nobody stepped outside the factory gate when the plant whistle sounded at noon.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that it had seen troop movements along the Ukrainian border but that it was not clear whether they were part of a pullout.
Minutes after the sirens sounded, Denis Pushilin, a leader of the separatists’ self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, tweeted that rebels would begin nationalizing the properties of “regional oligarchs” for their refusal to pay taxes to the People’s Republic, in an apparent reference to Akhmetov.
“It’s impossible at this early stage to tell whether or not this movement that we’re seeing is simply more of the same or if this is preparations for a broader withdrawal,” a Pentagon spokesman said.
In Moscow, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said Wednesday that Ukraine’s weekend elections were unlikely to have any legitimacy due to Ukraine’s ongoing “military operations against civilians in the southeast,” as well as “suppression of dissent, the freedom of speech, [and] the freedom of information,” Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
If a pullout occurs, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said during a trip to Mexico City on Wednesday, “and we’re watching carefully, that’s extremely constructive.”
The country’s Defense Ministry said that Russian troops in regions along the Ukrainian border have, “in the past 24 hours,” packed up their gear and “are now heading to train stations and airfields for embarkation,” according to Interfax.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Russian troops in regions along the Ukrainian border have, “in the past 24 hours,” packed up their gear and “are now heading to train stations and airfields for embarkation,” according to the news agency Interfax.
But the commander of Russia’s air force also said Wednesday that a scheduled “international competition” — in which Russian warplanes will “compete” in firing missiles and bullets at ground targets — would proceed in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border throughout the next week, despite Ukraine’s objections, the state’s RIA Novosti news agency said.
But the commander of Russia’s air force said Wednesday that a scheduled “international competition” — in which Russian warplanes will “compete” in firing missiles and bullets at ground targets — would proceed in the vicinity of the Ukrainian border throughout the coming week, despite Kiev’s objections, the state-run Ria Novosti news agency said.
The exercises will also occur on the day that Ukraine is due to hold elections.
The exercises will get underway Sunday, when Ukrainians head to the polls.
Support seemed thin for Akhmetov’s decision to use his clout to intervene.
Kunkle reported from Donetsk. Daniela Deane in London and Abigail Hauslohner in Moscow contributed to this report.
Alexei Primenko, 63, a locksmith in the steel plant’s main office, was one of those who shrugged off the demonstration. He said workers pay lip service to Akhmetov’s calls for pro-Ukrainian support because they owe their salaries to him. But Primenko said their hearts are not in it.
“What’s the demonstration going to give me?” he said.
Some said they did not heed the steel magnate’s call for a demonstration Tuesday because they blame him and other oligarchs as much as the separatists for dividing Ukraine.
Yet they have no interest in seeing Donbas, as the Donets Basin is known, split off to join Russia, even if they also agree with separatist grievances against Kiev.
At the burned-out city council building that pro-Russian separatists had previously seized, a dozen supporters of the Donetsk People’s Republic expressed contempt for Akhmetov’s demonstrations. Milling in the square, they said that Akhmetov’s workforce was a captive audience that had no choice but to participate in the demonstrations.
“They don’t support Akhmetov, but they’re afraid,” said Igor Grydin, 51, a businessman who helped to organize a self-rule referendum this month.
A few blocks away, where separatists were building fortifications around a school building, Aleksandr Kyselev said he was not sure what to make of Akhmetov’s call to demonstrate. Kyselev said Akhmetov signed an agreement with the separatists, the elected mayor and the municipal police to restore order, possibly indicating that the tycoon might be willing to recognize and do business with the Donetsk People’s Republic. But the situation remains fluid, he said, and Akhmetov’s recent shifts have made it hard to see where the magnate stands.
“This man is trying to do something,” Kyselev said. “He’s trying to solve the situation peacefully, but everything’s unclear.”
Birnbaum reported from Kiev and Hauslohner from Moscow. Daniela Deane contributed from London.
