Ukraine is set to begin discussions on giving more powers to its regions under a peace plan brokered by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is to chair the first in a series of round table meetings set to include national policymakers, government figures and regional officials in line with proposals drafted by the OSCE, a transatlantic security and rights group.
Russia has strongly backed the Swiss-drafted road map but Ukraine has remained cool to the plan.
Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia insurgents seized administrative buildings, fought government forces and declared independence for two regions after a controversial weekend referendum.
It comes after six government troops died in an ambush yesterday near Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, one of two in eastern Ukraine that declared independence on Monday.
The attackers included at least 30 insurgents and were using grenade launchers and automatic weapons, Ukraine’s defence ministry said.
Russia yesterday called for a swift implementation of the OSCE plan, saying its demand to end violence means that the central government in Kiev should stop its military operation to recapture buildings in the east, lift its blockade of cities and towns, pull its forces from eastern regions and release all political prisoners.
“We are demanding (they) stop intimidating civilians by using force or threatening to use it,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It added that it expects separatists in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions to respond in kind if Kiev does all that.
“(The road map) creates conditions for launching a broad national dialogue involving all political forces and regions of Ukraine, aimed at reconciliation and a comprehensive constitutional reform intended to stop the nation from sliding further to catastrophe,” the ministry said.
The OSCE plan calls on all sides to refrain from violence and urges amnesty for those involved in the unrest as well as talks on decentralisation and the status of the Russian language. The group has also promised to set up rapid response teams to quickly investigate all acts of violence.