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Apart from one brief report in Reuters unmentioned in the western media, including Deutsch Welle
‘Minsk
peace deal on Ukraine must be respected’ – Merkel after talks
with Poroshenko
RT,
29
October, 2015
The
terms of the Minsk ceasefire deal on eastern Ukraine cannot be called
into question, German Chancellor Merkel said in Berlin after meeting
with Ukrainian leader Poroshenko – just days after he said the
“times of pacifism” were “over.”
“The
first and foremost condition is that everything is done to make the
ceasefire agreement a reality. The task at hand means that what we
agreed in Minsk has to be respected,” Chancellor
Angela Merkel told reporters on Monday, referring to the February
peace plan based on an OSCE-brokered agreement between Kiev and
self-proclaimed rebel republics in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel
insisted that the Berlin meeting with Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande had been called to
help “implement
the Minsk deal, not to call it into question.”
'Pacifism over': #Poroshenko presents tanks, Humvees, weaponry to #Donbass forces (VIDEO)https://t.co/AUXhYqVstxpic.twitter.com/7XxZIzNGQB
— RT (@RT_com) August 22, 2015
The
German leader said that Poroshenko has assured her of Kiev’s
commitment to withdrawing weaponry from the front line of the
conflict – and a readiness to pull back weapons under 100mm in
caliber. While the withdrawal of lighter weaponry was not outlined in
the Minsk deal, eastern Ukrainian rebel forces unilaterally pulled
back arms of less than 100mm caliber at the end of July, saying it
was an act of good will in the hope that Kiev would follow suit.
According
to Merkel, a broader arms withdrawal was recently discussed in a
telephone conversation between the leaders of the ‘Normandy Four’
– France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
Both
Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics
have been blaming each other for frequent ceasefire violations,
including the use of heavy weaponry that they had agreed to pull back
under the Minsk Protocol. The OSCE monitoring mission
has confirmed that
both sides have violated the agreement. Shelling continues to hit
parts of the densely populated city of Donetsk: in July, one person
was killed and several others injured as Ukrainian
forces shelledresidential
blocks and a city hospital. Overall, the conflict has claimed more
than 6,700 lives since Kiev sent in the army in April of 2014 for
what it called an “anti-terrorist
operation.”
Poroshenko ‘sought backing for all-out war’?
However,
it is the recent statements by Poroshenko that have been interpreted
as signs of the imminent resumption of all-out war in the
rebel-controlled areas. On Saturday, the Ukrainian leader bluntly
stated that “the
Minsk agreement despite all criticism has given us time to build up
Ukraine’s defense,” adding
that “the
times of airheaded pacifism and shortsighted rejection of security
issues are forever in the past now.”
'Russians & Ukrainians NOT brothers' - Poroshenko http://t.co/2slkhXrY33pic.twitter.com/scjzYndZqD
— RT (@RT_com) August 21, 2015
With
Poroshenko’s remarks coming on the eve of his meeting with Merkel
and Hollande, Moscow reacted by saying it hoped that the European
leaders would put pressure on Kiev to stick to the Minsk agreements.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Merkel and Hollande, who
signed the Minsk deal as guarantors, will have to save their own
reputations and make sure that Ukraine does everything it has pledged
to do to achieve peace.
According
to political analyst Aleksandar Pavic, Poroshenko’s visit most
likely served as a public relations stunt amid serious domestic
economic problems. It could also mean he is seeking to gain backing
for a new military operation in eastern Ukraine.
“I
think Petro Poroshenko is just trying to get additional public
support for what he’s being prepared to do, inside and outside
Ukraine: a new push to resume war in Ukraine. So, I think he probably
has the backing of his Western sponsors, and this is just something
that needs to be more public… Obviously, the rhetoric that’s
coming out of Kiev is that Minsk, the Minsk agreements, are pretty
much dead,” Pavic
told RT.
#Putin goes to Crimea – but where’s the Western outrage? (Op-Edge by @NeilClark66)http://t.co/8vhyugBx0Vpic.twitter.com/t6HDjUklSV
— RT (@RT_com) August 22, 2015
The
analyst believes that one of the major problems forcing Poroshenko to
seek more public support is the rampant corruption in
post-coup “oligarchic-run”
Ukraine
– corruption that he has publically vowed to fight. Media reports,
such as one published by the German agency dpa, suggested that
fighting corruption in Ukraine was to be the focus of the agenda in
Berlin.
“Nobody’s
serious about dealing with corruption in Ukraine. It’s obvious
after more than a year, a year and a half of the war, ever since the
Maidan, that, if anything, Ukraine is even more corrupt than it was.
It’s now a place being run by the oligarchs, and it’s a much less
democratic place than it was,” Pavic
said, adding that the new Ukrainian authorities have only been
consistent in their push for war in Donbass.
Calling
Poroshenko’s Saturday statement on the Minsk deal “scandalous,” the
analyst pointed to the lack of response coming from the West.
“In
effect, he’s saying that, “No, we weren’t interested in peace
when we were negotiating the Minsk agreement. We were just interested
in buying time because we were losing the war, and now that we are
rearmed, we’re ready to resume the war.” Western capitals haven’t
responded, and really needed to respond very negatively to
Poroshenko’s statements if they were serious about real peace in
Ukraine and the Minsk agreement… They’re actually encouraging
Poroshenko to resume war,” Pavic
said.Wha
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