Russia, Ukraine Presidents trade barbs as talks resume

MOSCOW — The Presidents of Russia and Ukraine traded indirect barbs yesterday about the possibility of a peace settlement in the contested south-eastern provinces of Ukraine as mediators began efforts to hammer out a deal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of seeking to avoid talks that could lead to some degree of autonomy for south-eastern Ukraine and defended the region’s separatists, who are widely considered to be proxies fighting for Moscow’s interests.

“The current Kiev authorities don’t want to hold a substantive political dialogue with the east of their country,” Mr Putin told the BBC during a visit to Siberia.

In Kiev yesterday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko implicitly accused Russia of undertaking a direct assault on his country that caused a critical shift in the fighting in the south-east. “Direct, unconcealed aggression has been launched against Ukraine from a neighbouring country,” he said in a speech at the military academy in Kiev. “It radically changes the situation in the conflict area.”

Russia has repeatedly denied deploying arms or troops to Ukraine and arming the separatists and says it is merely defending the interests of the area’s substantial Russian-speaking population.

The exchange by the two leaders followed their meeting last week and came as peace talks were held yesterday in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, to reach a compromise amid the brutal fighting.

The European Union on Sunday threatened Russia with new sanctions to halt what it says is direct Russian military involvement in the war in Ukraine, but sharp divisions among leaders at a summit in Brussels left the timing of any measures uncertain. Still, British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday called the presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil “unjustified and unacceptable”.

Meanwhile, China yesterday voiced its opposition to the possible sanctions, saying the EU’s push to draw up more measures would only complicate the crisis. “A political solution is the only way out,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a daily news briefing. Agencies