The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany spoke Thursday by phone in an apparent attempt to shore up a ceasefire deal shaken by Ukraine’s forced retreat from a key town after a separatist offensive.
Ukraine pulled its troops from Debaltseve, a strategic railroad hub, on Wednesday after fierce fighting with pro-Russian separatist forces.
A deal signed in Minsk, Belarus, by the four leaders — Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Francois Hollande, Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko and Russia’s Vladimir Putin — a week ago had called for a ceasefire starting Sunday, to be followed by a withdrawal by both sides of heavy weapons to create a buffer zone.
“In my telephone conversation with Merkel, Hollande and Putin I stressed that the situation around Debaltseve was in breach of Minsk accords,” Poroshenko tweeted Thursday.
According to his office, he also asked for “definite guarantees in case there are further attempts to violate the agreements.”
It’s not yet clear what the Ukrainian withdrawal from Debaltseve means for the shaky peace deal. Will the separatists halt their offensive, satisfied with the territory they hold? Or will they be emboldened to push for more?
The ramifications for the West are huge because the 10-month-long conflict in eastern Ukraine has hiked tensions with Russia to a level not seen since the end of the Cold War, affecting trade and raising the specter of a Russian threat to Eastern Europe.
Ukraine calls for U.N. peacekeepers
Hours after Kiev pulled its troops out of Debaltseve, leaving it in the hands of the separatists, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council said it would ask for U.N. peacekeepers to be sent to eastern Ukraine.
But Russia’s U.N. envoy rejected that call, Russian state news agency Tass reported, saying it undermines the peace agreement signed in Minsk last week, which was based in part on a September peace deal.
“It is vital to pull out weapons but not to indulge in advancing new initiatives. And when they are proposing new schemes instead of implementing what has been agreed, it gives ground to suspect that they seek to frustrate the Minsk agreements,” U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin said, according to Tass.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, has criticized the separatists for refusing to allow its monitors into Debaltseve.
Poroshenko said Thursday that all four leaders had agreed that the OSCE should be assisted in its mission and that full access should be ensured starting Thursday, particularly around the Donetsk airport and in other towns where firing has occurred in the past hours, he said.
Only after a full ceasefire is achieved will the drawback of heavy weapons start under direct OSCE observation, he said.
A statement from Hollande’s office said the four leaders had agreed that the ceasefire should be in effect on the entire front line without exception.
The leaders also called for an acceleration in the release of prisoners held by both sides, as agreed to under the Minsk deal. Poroshenko said this should include those captured in Debaltseve.
He said the question of deploying peacekeepers along the front line and the Ukraine-Russia border had been included in the Minsk agenda.
Heightened tensions in Europe
Poroshenko sought Wednesday to portray his forces’ retreat from Debaltseve as organized and orderly, disputing separatists’ claims that the Ukrainian troops were surrounded and surrendered their arms.
The separatists regarded Debaltseve as already being their territory when the front lines for the ceasefire were drawn.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of arming the separatists and sending Russian troops over the border to fight with them. Russia denies the claim.
In a sign of the heightened tensions between Russia and other European nations, Britain’s Royal Air Force scrambled fighter jets Wednesday after Russian aircraft were identified flying close to UK airspace, the Ministry of Defence said Thursday.
“The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace,” a spokeswoman said.
UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper Wednesday that there’s a “real and present danger” that Putin would use murky tactics to destabilize the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which border Russia on NATO’s eastern flank.