Ukraine warns of martial law if fresh peace efforts fail

International leaders will gather next month for talks on Ukraine’s conflict, the country’s president has said, declaring that he wants to end a separatist insurgency peacefully but will impose martial law “immediately” if rebels relaunch hostilities.

Petro Poroshenko announced plans to meet the leaders of Russia, Germany and France in the Kazakh capital Astana on January 15th, for the first summit of its kind on Ukraine since June.

“The main task is . . . to turn the fragile ceasefire that exists in the east today, into a solid, reliable and long-lasting peace. And to bring the temporarily-occupied territories back under the Ukrainian authorities,” Mr Poroshenko told a news conference in Kiev.

A ceasefire plan and framework for a peace deal were agreed in Minsk, Belarus, on September 5th.

They failed to halt fighting in eastern Ukraine, but a subsequent ceasefire called in early December has significantly reduced bloodshed.

14 rebels killed

Sporadic clashes continue, however, particularly at Donetsk airport, where Mr Poroshenko said three Ukrainian servicemen and 14 rebels were killed yesterday.

Ukraine’s leader again placed blame for the conflict – which has killed more than 4,700 people and displaced about one million – squarely on Russia. “The key condition of the Minsk protocol, which would very quickly bring peace to our country, is simple: closure of the (Russia-Ukraine) border and the withdrawal of foreign troops from our territory,” he said.

“As soon as those forces are withdrawn, there will be no conflict . . . it is invented . . . brought to our country from outside.”

Moscow claims not to be involved in what it calls a “civil war” caused by Kiev’s western-backed “junta” launching a “punishment operation” against Russian-speakers who oppose last winter’s revolution.

Serving soldiers are among many Russians who have died fighting in Ukraine, however, and “volunteers” and heavy weapons flow freely to the rebels across Russia’s open border with separatist-controlled areas.

“There’s no military solution to the problem of Donbas. There is only a political solution,” Mr Poroshenko said, using the collective name for Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. “But martial law will be declared immediately . . . if any offensive operations begin at the line of contact.

“No one will hesitate for a minute,” Mr Poroshenko said.

Budget deficit

In the early hours of yesterday, parliament passed a Poroshenko-backed austerity plan for 2015 that aims to simultaneously cut the budget deficit and boost investment in the military, by slashing social expenditure and raising import duties.

The government hopes the measures will ensure swift payment of the next tranche of a $17 billion (€13.9 billion) IMF bailout, and help secure some $15 billion (€12.3 billion) in additional international funding.

Mr Poroshenko also signed a law cancelling Ukraine’s non-aligned status, and said a referendum would decide whether the country joins Nato, possibly in “five or six years”.

Russia is fiercely opposed to further eastward Nato expansion and has warned Ukraine not to seek membership of the military alliance.

Moscow's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Ukraine's conflict could be resolved in 2015, if Kiev spoke directly to the rebels "without prompters from Brussels or Washington".