Ukraine agrees 'evacuation corridor' with rebels
Pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian authorities have agreed on a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from the epicentre of fighting in eastern Ukraine as German and French leaders prepare to take a peace plan to Moscow.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are set to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin a day after discussing their proposals with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The diplomatic blitz comes amid fierce fighting that prompted Washington to consider providing the beleaguered Ukrainian military with weapons, in turn sparking European fears of wider hostilities.
Rebel leaders said they had reached agreement with Ukrainian authorities to allow the evacuation of civilians from Debaltseve, a key railway hub that has become the main target of a rebel offensive because of its strategic location.
The ceasefire around Debaltseve held today as a convoy of several dozen buses drove from nearby Vuhelhirsk towards Debaltseve, where a shrinking population has been trapped in the crossfire and left without power, heating and running water for almost two weeks.
Zorian Shkiryak, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, said on Facebook: “The green corridor has been confirmed.” Eduard Basurin, a rebel spokesman in Donetsk, said about 1,000 civilians are expected to be evacuated today.
Half-way to Debaltseve, the convoy was met by a Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier with a soldier on top warily pointing a gun toward nearby hills. More Ukrainian military trucks and armoured vehicles were parked on the outskirts of Debaltseve, devastated by artillery barrage.
The boom of heavy artillery was heard at a distance, but there was no sign of fighting nearby.
Meanwhile, world leaders, diplomats and defence officials are converging on Munich for a security conference which will focus on Ukraine.
US secretary of state John Kerry is already in the German city after talks in Kiev yesterday, and is planning on meeting Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif ahead of the opening of the three-day conference.
Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to be on hand tomorrow, after today’s talks with Mr Putin and Mr Hollande. Mr Poroschenko, US vice president Joe Biden and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov are also flying in.
The hostilities in eastern Ukraine between Russia-backed separatist rebels and Ukrainian forces have intensified sharply over the past two weeks. Russia vehemently denies it is backing the insurgency with troops and weapons, but Mr Kerry rejected that denial yesterday.
He said President Barack Obama “is reviewing all his options; among those options obviously is the possibility of providing defensive systems to Ukraine”.
Germany and other European nations remain fiercely opposed to sending arms to Ukraine, fearing it could intensify the conflict and further polarise the West and Russia.
France and Germany hope they can come up with a peace deal acceptable to Ukraine and Russia. In a sign of the importance of the initiative, this will be Ms Merkel’s first trip to Moscow since Ukraine’s conflict broke out last year.
Western diplomats said Mr Putin gave the French and Germans a nine-page peace plan, and that Mr Hollande and Ms Merkel were taking a repackaged version of that with them. The European version drops the most objectionable elements of the Russian plan to fit what Ukraine and the Europeans want, but it does offer some autonomy for eastern Ukraine with special protections for language, culture and local taxes, the diplomats said.
More than 5,300 people have been killed since the separatist insurgency flared up in eastern Ukraine in April following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
Artillery duels between rebels and government forces continued to rumble through Donetsk, the main rebel-held city. Several places were hit overnight, including a cafe, but there was no immediate information on casualties.
