Rebels in Ukraine agree to ceasefire, peace talks

Insurgents promised on Monday to honour a ceasefire declared by the Ukrainian president and engage in more talks to help resolve the conflict that has left hundreds dead in eastern Ukraine.

From afar, President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin traded demands on Monday on the situation in Ukraine, with Obama urging Putin to stop supporting the separatists and letting arms flow across the border into Ukraine, and Putin demanding that Ukraine hold direct, not indirect, talks with the eastern separatists who have declared independence.

The announcement came on the first day of discussions between a former Ukrainian president, the Russian ambassador, European officials and the separatists.

The negotiations were launched in line with President Petro Poroshenko’s peace plan, which started with a weeklong unilateral ceasefire on Friday to uproot the mutiny that has engulfed the nation’s industrial east. Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting and tens of thousands have fled their homes.

Alexander Borodai, one of the rebel leaders who took part in Monday’s talks in Donetsk, said they would respect the ceasefire declared by Poroshenko.

The rebels, who have declared their border regions independent and fought government troops for two months, also promised to release the observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe whom they have held hostage.

In Moscow, the Kremlin said Putin underlined in his conversation with Obama that in order to normalise the situation in eastern Ukraine it’s necessary to “effectively end fighting and start direct talks between the conflicting parties.”

Monday’s talks involved Ukraine’s ex-President Leonid Kuchma, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine and an envoy from the OSCE. Poroshenko has ruled out talks with those he calls “terrorists,” so inviting Kuchma to mediate offered a way to conduct talks without the government’s formal engagement.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, meanwhile, said Obama urged Putin to use his personal influence with the separatists to promote peace and stability in Ukraine. The US leader said a diplomatic solution was still possible but insisted that Russia will face additional costs if it does not take concrete action.

Earnest said the United States is very supportive of Poroshenko, who just came to power earlier this month, saying Poroshenko is “willing to go the extra mile.”

The insurgents had previously demanded the Ukrainian military withdraw its troops from the east as a condition for any talks, so Borodai’s statement on Monday represented a softened stance that raised expectations that the ceasefire could hold.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the rebellion in the east by sending troops and weapons across the border, but Moscow has denied that and insisted that Russian citizens who joined the insurgents were volunteers.

The Ukrainian government has accused the rebels of firing at government forces’ positions since the unilateral ceasefire was announced, while insurgents have accused the Ukrainian forces of failing to observe it. Poroshenko has said that government troops will fire back if attacked.

Poroshenko’s office said on Monday that he had offered Russia a chance to send its own observers to join the OSCE mission in Ukraine to see that government troops were observing the ceasefire.

Kuchma, who served as president from 1994-2005, comes from the east and is an astute political player respected by both sides. His ex-chief of staff, Viktor Medvedchuk, has lived in Russia and reportedly has close ties to Putin, was also at the talks.

“If both sides hopefully observe it (the ceasefire), then a normal peace process could start,” Kuchma told reporters after Monday’s talks.

Putin’s comments on Monday aim to keep up the pressure on the Ukrainian government to give the country’s eastern industrial regions more powers, which would allow them to keep close ties with Russia and serve the Kremlin’s main goal of preventing Ukraine from joining Nato.

But the Russian leader also wants to avoid more crippling sanctions from the US and particularly from the European Union, whose leaders will meet on Friday in Brussels, and therefore needs to be seen as cooperating with efforts to de-escalate the conflict.