Yahoo – AFP,
Max Delany and Ania Tsoukanova, with Nicolas Miletitch in Donetsk, Ukraine, 12
Feb 2015
 |
Russian
President Vladimir Putin (centre) shakes hands with his Ukrainian
counterpart
Petro Poroshenko during a meeting in Minsk, on February 11,
2015 (AFP
Photo/Andrey Stasevich)
|
Minsk (AFP)
- A new peace roadmap aimed at ending the 10-month war between Ukraine and
pro-Moscow rebels was agreed in Belarus Thursday, but Germany's Chancellor
Angela Merkel warned that "big hurdles" remained.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin emerged from the summit in the Belarussian capital
Minsk, saying he, Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko had agreed on the "main" points.
 |
The
10-month conflict in eastern Ukraine
has already killed at least 5,300
people,
according to the United Nations
(AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)
|
Putin said
a ceasefire would take effect at midnight Kiev time on Sunday (2200 GMT on
Saturday) and that heavy weapons would be withdrawn from frontlines of the
conflict, which has already killed at least 5,300 people and driven a million
people from their homes.
Hollande,
described the deal as "a comprehensive political solution", while
Merkel spoke only of a "glimmer of hope".
"I
have no illusions. We have no illusions," she said, adding that "much
work" remained.
Hollande,
Merkel and Poroshenko flew from Minsk to Brussels for a European Union summit,
where the French leader said that it was essential to keep up pressure to
ensure the accord's success.
"The
next few hours will be decisive as it could go either way," Hollande said
at an EU summit in Brussels fresh from the peace talks in Minsk, adding:
"We will have to remain vigilant, to maintain the pressure and to press
ahead."
British
Premier David Cameron said Putin should not expect any change to current
sanctions against Moscow by the 28-nation EU unless he really changed his
behaviour.
 |
A man walks
past an unexploded rocket
in in the eastern Ukrainian city of
Kramatorsk, on
February 11, 2015
(AFP Photo/Volodymyr Shuvayev)
|
"If
this is a genuine ceasefire then that would be welcome but what matters most of
all is actions," he added.
Toll
mounts
The roadmap
-- meant to ease a crisis that has plunged the West and Russia into their
bitterest dispute since the Cold War -- was signed by the so-called
"contact group".
This
comprises the pro-Russian separatist leaders, Russian and Ukrainian envoys, and
European mediators from the OSCE.
A previous
truce signed in Minsk last September quickly collapsed.
The latest
talks were seen as a last opportunity for European leaders to save nearly
bankrupt Ukraine from ever-widening defeats at the hands of rebels said by Kiev
and the West to be armed and trained by Russia.
Even as the
deal was agreed, Kiev and rebel sources said fighting over the last 24 hours
had killed 14 civilians and two Ukrainian soldiers.
The
Ukrainian government also accused Russia of deploying another 50 tanks across
the border overnight, with fighting expected to continue around disputed
railway hub Debaltseve, which rebels claim to have surrounded.
Putin said
that up to 8,000 Ukraine troops were surrounded at Debalseve and rebels
expected them to lay down their arms.
 |
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko
looks on during a press conference after
a summit in
Minsk, on February 12,
2015 (AFP Photo/Maxim Malinovsky)
|
The
Ukrainian military however denied the troops were blocked but said fighting was
continuing ahead of the ceasefire.
In
rebel-held Donetsk, weary residents expressed little optimism.
Money and
guns
"I
don't believe in it at all," said Lyubov, 62, who would not give her last
name. "Every time they sign an agreement, they say one thing and do
another. I no longer trust anyone."
Beset by
war and corruption, Ukraine's pro-Western government is struggling to enact
legal and economic reforms that would help steer the former Soviet republic out
of Russia's sphere of influence and into Western institutions.
The Kiev
government got a major boost Thursday with the announcement by IMF chief
Christine Lagarde of a new financial rescue plan worth $17.5 billion.
In total,
Ukraine will receive $40 billion (35 billion euros) in assistance over four
years coupled with bilateral loans from other sources, Lagarde said, helping to
stabilise Kiev's finances after 10 months of conflict in the east.
The fate of
Ukraine, however, may be decided on battlefields in the east, where heavily
armed rebels have recently made big gains against outgunned government forces.
 |
A woman
walks past a building destroyed
in the clashes in Dokuchajevsk, on
Febuary 10,
2015 (AFP Photo/
Dominique Faget)
|
The new
Minsk agreement is broadly similar to the first one, except that the new heavy
weapons-free zone will be 50 to 70 kilometres (31-43 miles) wide, depending on
the range of the weapon, double the width of the buffer zone agreed in
September.
Kiev will
also begin retaking control over the approximately 400 kilometre (250 mile)
stretch of Russia's border with rebel-held Ukraine, but only after local
elections are held.
The border
is entirely under Russian and pro-Russian rebel control and is used, according
to Kiev, as a conduit for separatist supplies. The Kremlin denies this but has
opposed Ukraine being allowed to regain control of the frontier.
While heavy
weapons must be withdrawn, troops and rebels can remain where they are, handing
rebels de facto control of the roughly 500 square kilometres of territory
they've gained in recent weeks.
Separatist-held
territories will be granted a degree of autonomy to be established through
talks, and the right to decide which language they use.
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