EU endorses Ukraine peace plan as talks with separatists begin

The EU Foreign Ministers Council called upon the Russian government to support the Ukrainian peace plan and use effective measures to stop the flow of fighters, weapons and equipment to Ukraine, according to its communique released on June 23 after its meeting in Luxembourg. It also called upon the Russian leadership to use its influence on the separatists in eastern Ukraine to stop the violence and lay down their arms and to release hostages, including OSCE monitors. It called upon the Kremlin to withdraw its armies from the Ukrainian border, to refrain from a repeated concentration of armies in this region and to cancel the mandate of the Federations Council for using force in Ukraine. It called for all sides in the conflict to reach a truce and achieve a real de-escalation of the crisis.

The EU is ready to apply sanctions against the Russian government if it doesn’t take action to support the peace plan by June 27, British Foreign Minister William Hague said on June 23 before the EU Foreign Ministers Council, as reported by the UNIAN news agency. He characterized as “strong and very good” the plan proposed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and presented to the foreign ministers council by Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister. “We expect that Russia will take real actions to stop the flow of arms and illegal armed groups across the border of eastern Ukraine,” he said.

Russian and Ukrainian leaders began negotiations on June 23 in Donetsk to settle the armed conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Among those attending were Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov; OSCE special envoy Heidi Tagliavini; former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma; Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) leader Aleksandr Borodai; Ukrainian separatist leader Oleg Tsariov; and Ukrainian federalization advocate Viktor Medvedchuk, who received the Russian government’s recognition as an ambassador. Kuchma told a press briefing that the sides agreed to a ceasefire until June 27, the Interfax news agency reported.

Iryna Gerashchenko, the president’s ombudsman to the Donbas conflict, said on June 20 that the Ukrainian government wouldn’t allow the leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic to the roundtable negotiations initiated by the president.

Zenon Zawada: It’s quite shocking to see the Ukrainian government engaging in negotiations with the separatist leaders, who have supported the warfare, whether through direct participation (Borodai) or with financial support (Tsariov and Medvedchuk, allegedly). Their presence elevates their status when they previously had no standing on an official level, beyond Russia. Indeed the Ukrainian government even has a warrant out for Tsariov’s arrest, which is being ignored for the sake of the talks.

Poroshenko and his advisors must have decided that it was worth the risk of dealing with the separatists in exchange for implementing the peace plan with the support of Western leaders, who offered their approval. Without the threat of sanctions against the Russian economy, the decision to hold the talks would have been a capitulation of Poroshenko’s part. Yet the sanctions risk gives the Ukrainian government the ability to find a peaceful settlement without appearing weak in talking to the separatists.

Given the ongoing violence despite the ceasefire, as well as the declared intentions of the Russians, we don’t expect long-lasting success from the negotiations. Moreover, the Russians have established a dangerous precedent of requiring the involvement of the separatists in any talks on the Donbas conflict with the Ukrainian government.