Russian leader Vladimir Putin has ramped up public support for Ukraine's rebels, calling for urgent talks on "statehood" for regions where they are fighting, even while denying Western claims that he is giving the insurgents military help.
Mr Putin made his demand of Kiev after European Union leaders again chose not to immediately tighten sanctions on Russia, in response to an alleged influx of its soldiers and armour into Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
As the major port city of Mariupol on Ukraine’s Azov Sea coast braced for possible attack by pro-Moscow rebels now located only about 40km away, the militants claimed to have struck at least one Ukrainian ship with an anti-tank rocket.
“We need to immediately begin substantive talks, and not just on technical issues but on political organisation of society and statehood in southeastern Ukraine,” Mr Putin said.
Moscow has previously demanded that Ukraine introduce a federal structure that would give more power to Russian-speaking southeastern regions, and the mention of “statehood” suggested to many that he now sought the creation of a sovereign country in a region known in Tsarist days as “Novorossiya” (“New Russia”).
‘Novorossiya’
Later, Mr Putin’s spokesman
Dmitry Peskov
said the Kremlin did not want to break up Ukraine, and did not envisage an independent “Novorossiya”.
“Only Ukraine can reach an agreement with Novorossiya taking into account the interests of Novorossiya, and this is the only way to reach a political settlement,” he said.
Moscow’s insistence that Kiev resolve the crisis through talks with the rebels rather than with Russia mirrors its strategy in “frozen conflicts” in Georgia and Moldova; the approach allows the Kremlin to distance itself from the stand-off and possible international repercussions while pulling strings behind the scenes.
Talks involving Ukraine, Russia, the rebels and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe are expected to resume in Belarus today.
‘No return’
Visiting Brussels on Saturday, Ukrainian president
Petro Poroshenko
said: “We are close to the point of no return . . . Thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks are now on the territory of Ukraine.”
“Today we are talking about the fate of Ukraine,” he added. “Tomorrow it could be for all Europe.”
After the rebels’ first attack on Ukrainian ships, local media said two vessels belonging to the navy, coastguard or border guard service had been hit, possibly by an aircraft. Casualty figures were not immediately available.
“The militia have dealt the enemy their first naval defeat,” Igor Strelkov, a former separatist military commander, wrote on social media.
At a summit of EU leaders on Saturday, Russia was effectively given a deadline of a week to alter its course in Ukraine or face further sanctions.
The European Council, while stopping short of implementing further sanctions, despite a push by a German-led group of countries, charged the European Commission with the task of drawing up a proposal for further measures.
These are to be presented this week. Any decision to implement further sanctions could be signed off by EU ambassadors – a leaders’ summit would not be required.
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