Bid fails for Russia-Ukraine parley

More chances ahead for Crimea solution, Kerry assures

Secretary of State John Kerry confers with French President Francois Hollande (left), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (background) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius during a break Wednesday in Paris in their talks on Ukraine.

Secretary of State John Kerry confers with French President Francois Hollande (left), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (background) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius during a break Wednesday in Paris in their talks on Ukraine.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

PARIS - An effort by the United States to broker the first diplomatic meeting between Russia and Ukraine over the Crimea confrontation failed Wednesday, but U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart both said there would be more discussions in the days ahead.

Kerry and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, spoke separately after a meeting at France’s Foreign Ministry, which Lavrov called “a long day of discussions on Ukraine.”

U.S. efforts to arrange a direct meeting between Lavrov and the acting Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsia - who was in the same building but not the same room - did not happen, reflecting the tensions over Russia’s refusal to recognize the interim government in Kiev.

Lavrov said he and Kerry had agreed to continue discussions in the days to come “to see how best we can help stabilize, normalize the situation and overcome the crisis. The discussions will continue and that’s it.”

Asked if he had met his Ukrainian counterpart, Lavrov said, “Who is it? I didn’t see anyone.” Deshchytsia, asked why he and Lavrov had not met, said: “Ask Lavrov.”

photo

AP

Pro-Russian demonstrators display a Russian flag Wednesday on the balcony of the regional administrative building in Donetsk after storming past riot police to retake it for the second time in a week.

Later at a news conference at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, Kerry sought to play down the failure of the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers to meet, even though U.S. officials confirmed that is still the goal.

“I had no expectation that today that kind of a meeting would take place,” Kerry said.

He also said new ideas for resolving the crisis had been put on the table and that he would be consulting with President Barack Obama about the ideas while Lavrov consulted with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Further discussions on Ukraine, Kerry said, would be held in the days ahead.

He reiterated the West’s demands that Russia pull back its forces from the Crimean Peninsula, the heavily Russian-populated region in southern Ukraine where the Kremlin seized control during the weekend.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry said he regretted that Russia had not attended a morning meeting on Ukraine that was held by the United States, Britain and Ukraine at the U.S. ambassador’s residence.

William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said Wednesday morning that the group would try to “create other opportunities later today” for the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers to meet.

The swirl of diplomacy came as the European Union provided a significant financial boost to the struggling Ukraine government, offering aid worth as much as $15 billion over the next two years.

The offer came atop $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to ease Ukraine’s economic transition, announced by Kerry on Tuesday in Kiev, where he was visiting to reassure the interim Ukraine government and challenge Russia. Kerry and Deshchytsia then flew to Paris together.

Russia regards the interim government in Kiev, which took power after President Viktor Yanukovych fled last month, as illegitimate.

The standoff in Crimea, the former Soviet republic that is deeply intertwined with Russia economically, and the larger struggle over Ukraine are at the heart of the diplomatic and financial maneuvers.

The Russians have defended their actions in Crimea as a response to a request for aid from citizens and from the ousted president. The Russians say Yanukovych remains the legitimate president of Ukraine, while the Americans have said he lost his legitimacy by fleeing to Russia and opened the way to a new interim government ratified by parliament.

The offers of loans are crucial, because Ukraine is in dire economic shape, with a promised Russian loan of $15 billion in abeyance since the ouster of Yanukovych. Russia on Tuesday also decided to cancel a large discount on natural-gas supplies to Ukraine starting April 1.

Ukrainian officials have said they need $35 billion in new loans and credits over the next two years to avoid default.

A team from the International Monetary Fund is in Kiev to study the books and consider a stabilization loan. The fund is expected to demand difficult changes, including the reduction of lavish subsidies on gas prices, so the U.S. and European money is intended in part to help cushion the blow to Ukrainian voters before new elections in May.

The U.S. and European offers also are intended to answer political criticism in Washington and some European countries that the West is not doing enough to support Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

The European Union announced it is freezing the financial assets in Europe of 18 people held responsible for misusing state funds in Ukraine, including Yanukovych and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

The list also includes several of Yanukovych’s aides, including a former interior minister, justice minister, the prosecutor general, the head of the security services and Yanukovych’s son.

In Kiev, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Russia’s deployment of forces was having an “extremely negative” effect on the country’s already shaky economy.

“The Russian aggression on Ukraine’s territory is having political and economic consequences,” he said in remarks broadcast on television. “The presence of the Russian military on Ukraine’s territory is having an extremely negative effect on Ukraine’s economy.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s former prime minister - the heroine of Ukraine’s 2004-2005 Orange Revolution and Yanukovych’s arch-enemy - called on the West to force Russia to withdraw its troops.

Yulia Tymoshenko, who was released from prison two weeks ago, said any negotiations about Ukraine’s future should be conducted directly between the U.S., the EU and Russia - and insisted no compromises should be made to appease Moscow.

“It is up to them to choose the methods to stop the aggressor. But they must do it immediately,” Tymoshenko said. The West must do “everything that will stop the aggressor. Period.”

But there was no indication that Russia had any intention of releasing its grip on Crimea, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and an important southern port for the Russian military. Russian troops in Crimea, still in uniforms without insignia, continue to surround all key Ukrainian military facilities. Most of the Ukrainians have resisted calls to hand over their weapons and leave their bases, where they are effectively imprisoned.

In Crimea on Wednesday, 10 to 15 unidentified armed men threatened the United Nations special envoy, Robert Serry, as he departed a meeting at a naval facility, ordering him to go to the airport and leave the peninsula, said the deputy secretary-general, Jan Eliasson. Serry later left by plane.

There were other reports Wednesday that Russian troops had seized part of a Ukrainian missile-defense unit in Yevpatoria, on the western coast of Crimea, but a local spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that the command post and control center of the base remained under Ukrainian control.

In the north of the Crimean Peninsula on the isthmus near the Ukrainian mainland, northwest of Armyansk, Russian troops with 10 large trucks set up a roadblock and were checking documents and cars. Two Russian flags flew over the roadblock and journalists were told to keep away.

In Donetsk, in the east of the country, where Russian speakers are predominant, pro-Kremlin demonstrators calling for greater independence from Kiev overcame riot police and poured into the regional administration building Wednesday evening, retaking the building for a second time this week in a persistent tug-of-war with police. Later in the evening, rival demonstrations in Donetsk between pro-Moscow and pro-Kiev groups devolved into brawls that left several people injured.

U.S. RESPONSES

In the U.S. on Wednesday, the Obama administration took steps to support the defenses of U.S. allies in Europe in response to Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. was stepping up joint aviation training with Polish forces. The Pentagon also is increasing American participation in NATO’s air-policing mission in its Baltic countries, he said.

In his remarks, Hagel focused on U.S. diplomatic and aid efforts since Moscow’s incursion into Ukrainian territory. He said he’d speak later Wednesday with Ukraine’s new defense minister. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey spoke to his Russian counterpart earlier in the day. Neither Hagel nor Dempsey mentioned military options.

“I urge continued restraint in the days ahead in order to preserve room for a diplomatic solution,” Dempsey told the Senate panel.

Hagel said the U.S. was reaffirming its commitment to allies in central and eastern Europe, some of whom spent decades in the past century under Soviet domination.

Also Wednesday, the top members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced a resolution condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine and calling on the Obama administration to impose “visa, financial, trade and other sanctions” on Russian officials, state-owned banks and companies.

The resolution will be addressed by the committee today. Meanwhile, a separate House bill circulated Wednesday to pay for loan guarantees to be extended to Ukraine.

Democratic and Republican senators also are crafting a bill that would impose sanctions on Russian government officials and export industries such as petrochemicals, but want to coordinate action with European governments.

“Really this comes down to whether Europe is willing to join us,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who heads a Senate subcommittee focused on the region. “Europe is not where they need to be right now. I think they are willing to give Putin a much longer leash than we are.”

European countries are grappling with their own response to the crisis, fearful about moves reminiscent of Russia’s Cold War policy of regional hegemony but equally concerned about damaging trade and energy partnerships vital to their economies.

The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said EU leaders holding a crisis meeting on Ukraine today could impose sanctions on Russia if there was no “de-escalation” by then, echoing earlier comments Tuesday by the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.

Fabius told French television that measures could include restrictions on visas, on the assets of individuals and a review of existing discussions on economic ties with Russia.

Germany has been pressing for dialogue, both directly with Russia and through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the 57-member group of which both Ukraine and Russia are members. Fabius said France had jointly elaborated a “crisis exit” plan with Germany.

Also Wednesday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation announced that at Ukraine’s request it had sent a team of 35 unarmed military personnel to Crimea to investigate and assess the situation there.

“They will not be contented with assurances that these people are volunteers, who bought their uniforms in a shop,” Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said, referring to statements by Putin. The hope is to learn “who is in power there and conclusions the OSCE should draw from that.” Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Gordon, Steven Erlanger, Dan Bilefsky and Andrew Roth of The New York Times and by Lara Jakes, Maria Danilova, Juergen Baetz, Laura Mills, Monika Scislowska, Greg Keller, Sylvie Corbet, Julie Pace, Bradley Klapper, Lolita C. Baldor and Pan Pylas of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/06/2014