Yahoo – AFP,
Nicolas Gaudichet with Galina Korba in Kiev, 21 Aug 2014
Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Ukraine's president said he will "talk peace" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by demanding the withdrawal of pro-Kremlin militants from the war-torn east when they meet next week for the first time in months.
Ukrainian
forces take their position not far from the eastern city of Lugansk
on August
20, 2014 (AFP Photo/Anatolii Stepanov)
|
Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Ukraine's president said he will "talk peace" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by demanding the withdrawal of pro-Kremlin militants from the war-torn east when they meet next week for the first time in months.
President
Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday that "the whole world is tired of
war" and that he would "call for militants to be pulled out of
Ukraine" when he meets Putin for crunch talks in Minsk alongside top EU
officials.
His
strident tone reflects the fact that government forces have made significant
gains against the pro-Russian rebels in recent days. A fierce offensive
continued on Thursday, with Kiev hoping for a knock-out blow ahead of the fresh
round of diplomacy.
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko
gestures as he addresses deputies during a
parliamentary session in Kiev on July 31,
2014 (AFP Photo/Anatolii Stepanov)
|
Kiev has
accused Moscow of ramping up support to the rebels as their situation grows
more desperate, and the West fears the Kremlin could even launch a full-scale
invasion as a last roll of the dice.
Russia has
persistently denied allegations that it is arming and effectively running the
rebellion. It says it wants an end to the Ukrainian offensive and to four
months of fighting that has killed over 2,200 people.
It
ridiculed claims from Kiev that Russian military documents had been found in
armoured vehicles captured following a battle near the rebel stronghold of
Lugansk.
Refugees
rising
On the
ground, fighting continued in a string of key rebel towns as government forces
refocused attempts to cut off alleged supply routes from Russia.
Shelling
near the main separatist city of Donetsk left two civilians dead on Thursday,
while an interior ministry official said 16 servicemen were killed in fierce
battles for control of a railway hub in the region.
The United
Nations on Wednesday increased its estimate of the number of people who have
fled the fighting since April to at least 415,800.
In Lugansk,
a city without communication, water or power for the past 19 days, authorities
said residents were "on the brink of survival".
The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged both sides to "take
constant care to spare the civilian population" after a small team of aid
workers visited the city.
Heavy
shelling has left homes decimated in central Donetsk.
"I
don't know who to turn to, I don't know who the government is anymore,"
Inna, a physics professor, told AFP. "Today it is the rebels but tomorrow
Kiev could be back."
A Russian
humanitarian convoy on the side of the road as they approach the
Donetsk-Izvarino customs control checkpoint in the Russia's Rostov Region
on
August 21, 2014 (AFP Photo/Sergey Veniavsky)
|
Aid on
the move?
Meanwhile
the week-long dispute over a mammoth Russian aid convoy parked at Ukraine's
border appeared to be nearing resolution.
An ICRC
official told journalists in Moscow that trucks could cross "hopefully
tomorrow" as Ukrainian officials began long-delayed checks.
Kiev and
the West fear that an attack on the convoy in Ukraine could be used by Russia
as a pretext to invade, which Moscow has denied.
The Red
Cross has spent the past few days scrambling to nail down security guarantees
from all sides for the convoy's journey.
A day after
the national currency tanked to a new record low, Economy Minister Pavlo
Sheremeta announced his resignation citing prolonged disputes over how to fix
the country's disastrous financial situation.
Sheremeta
has been at loggerheads with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who criticised
the slow pace of reforms needed to unlock $1.4 billion (one billion euros) in
international aid due later this month.
The money
is part of a broader $27-billion rescue package to salvage the economy but
questions remain over failures by the authorities in Kiev to push through key
anti-corruption legislation.
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