Putin Talks With Ukraine's Leader

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, as Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, center, looks on, prior to their talks after posing for a photo in Minsk, Belarus, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014. Leaders of Russia, Belarus, two other former Soviet republics as well as top EU officials are meeting in Minsk, Belarus, for a highly anticipated summit to discuss the crisis in Ukraine which has left more than 2,000 dead and displaced over 300,000 people.



MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The presidents of Russia and Ukraine met face-to-face Tuesday for the first time since June to talk about the fighting that has engulfed Ukraine's separatist east. From their opening remarks, it appeared unlikely that Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko would find common ground.

The meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk came as Ukraine said it had captured 10 Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine and shelling spread to a new front in the country's southeast. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of supporting and arming the pro-Russian rebels fighting government troops, which Russia always denies.

"The fate of peace and the fate of Europe are being decided in Minsk today," Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate magnate, said as the talks began, his manner unusually restrained.

The two leaders sat on opposite sides of a large round table and were joined by the presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan and three senior officials from the European Union. Contrary to some expectations, they did not meet one-on-one ahead of the talks, according to an aide to the Ukrainian president, Iryna Herashchenko.

They did stage a handshake for the cameras.

Under pressure to seek a negotiated settlement and not a military victory, Poroshenko said the purpose of his visit was to start searching for a political compromise and promised that the interests of Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine would be taken into account.

Putin devoted most of his opening remarks to trade, arguing that Ukraine's decision to sign an association agreement with the 28-nation EU would lead to huge losses for Russia, which would then be forced to protect its economy. Russia had been counting on Ukraine joining a rival economic union it is forming with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Ukraine is set to ratify the EU association agreement in September.

On the fighting, Putin said he was certain the conflict "could not be solved by further escalation of the military scenario without taking into account the vital interests of the southeast of the country and without a peaceful dialogue of its representatives."

Ukraine wants the rebels to hand back the territory they have captured in eastern Ukraine, while Putin wants to retain some sort of leverage over the mostly Russian-speaking region so Ukraine does not join NATO or the European Union.

Poroshenko would be unlikely to agree to Russia's frequent call for Ukraine to federalize — devolving wide powers to the regions from the central government in Kiev — but could agree to give the regions some expanded powers. Poroshenko also has spoken against holding a referendum on Ukraine's joining NATO.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko urged both sides to "discard political ambitions and not to seek political dividend."

Putin has so far ignored requests from the rebels to be annexed by Russia — unlike in March, when he annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. But Associated Press journalists on the border have seen the rebels with a wide range of unmarked military equipment — including tanks, Buk missile launchers and armored personnel carriers — and have run into many Russians among the rebel fighters.

Ukraine's anti-rebel operation said on its Facebook page the 10 soldiers from a Russian paratrooper division were captured Monday around Amvrosiivka, a town near the Russian border.

Ukraine's posting included videos of five of the men. One, who identified himself as Sergei Smirnov, said they were not told anything about their mission.

"We were just traveling through fields and then we stopped in the middle of the field and the BMP2 (armored vehicle) broke down," he said.

Asked if he knew they were on Ukrainian territory, he said: "When we got into the village we saw a tank with Ukrainian flag. Then we understood." He said they then came under fire.

Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed official in the Russian Defense Ministry as saying the soldiers were patrolling the border and probably crossed it inadvertently.

Meanwhile, towering columns of smoke rose Tuesday from outside a city in Ukraine's far southeast after what residents said was a heavy artillery barrage, and Ukraine accused the separatists and Russia of trying to expand the conflict.

It was the second straight day that attacks were reported in the vicinity of Novoazovsk, which is in eastern Ukraine's separatist Donetsk region but previously had seen little fighting.

Novoazovsk lies on the Azov Sea on the road that runs from Russia to the major Ukrainian port of Mariupol and west to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia.

Ukraine said a small column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles crossed into Ukraine on Monday north of Novoazovsk, raising the possibility that pro-Russia separatists were aiming to take control of a strip of land that would link up Russia with Crimea.

"The new columns of Russian tanks and armor crossing into Ukraine indicates a Russian-directed counteroffensive may be underway," U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said on his Twitter account.

In Kiev, Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Council, blamed the shelling Tuesday on "Russian mercenaries."

"Russia is trying from its side to open a new front," Lysenko told reporters.

Local residents in Novoazovsk, some hastily packing up in order to flee, told The Associated Press it was not clear what direction the firing had come from Tuesday.

Ukrainian officials on Monday said artillery in the region was fired from the Russian side of the border. A Ukrainian soldier who declined to give his name suggested that Tuesday's shelling could be from rebels aiming to take out a Ukrainian rocket launcher.

Later in the day, reporters saw Ukrainian troops and equipment moving on the road west of Novoazovsk, and heard the rumbling of what sounded like artillery fire in the distance.

Lysenko said there were enough forces and equipment in Mariupol to defend the city of more than 450,000. An AP reporter saw excavators digging deep trenches Tuesday on its eastern edge.

Russia reportedly has tens of thousands of troops positioned in areas near the Ukrainian border, leading to persistent concerns that Moscow could be preparing an invasion.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine began in mid-April, a month after Russia annexed Crimea. It has killed over 2,000 people and forced over 340,000 to flee, according to the U.N.

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Unidentified, heavily-armed strangers with Russian accents have appeared in an eastern Ukrainian village, arousing residents' suspicions despite Moscow's denials that its troops have deliberately infiltrated the frontier.

Two witnesses told Reuters on Tuesday that the dozens of men, who arrived at the weekend and set up a road block, were not local and had military ration packs marked with Russian writing.

While they wore no insignia, their appearance or behavior bore striking similarities to a group of Russian troops detained in Ukraine in the past few days, and to Russian forces which occupied Crimea earlier this year, the witnesses said.

The men had white arm bands, the same identifying mark that was worn by 10 men captured a few kilometers (miles) away by Ukrainian forces and who, in video released on Tuesday, said they were Russian paratroopers.

Ukraine accuses Russia of sending weapons and soldiers to fight alongside pro-Moscow rebels in the country's east, a charge the Kremlin has denied throughout the five-month conflict.

If it turns out that Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine, that could deepen yet further the crisis, which is the focus of talks on Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart in Minsk.

Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said in a Twitter post: "The new columns of Russian tanks and armor crossing into Ukraine indicates a Russian-directed counter-offensive may be underway."

Kolosky is about 7 km (4 miles) from Dzerkalniy, a settlement where Ukrainian officials said they had detained the 10 Russian troops featured in the video footage.

Russian news agencies cited a source in the Russian defense ministry as saying the paratroopers had strayed into Ukraine by mistake during an exercise. One of the men said in video footage released by Ukraine's security services that they had been instructed to put on white arm-bands.

WHITE CIRCLES

The two witnesses who spoke to Reuters said the armed men did not have any insignia on their uniforms or vehicles that would explicitly identify them as Russian troops, but they said there were more subtle signs.

Dmitry Chistyukhin, a resident of Kolosky, said some of the men were trading their military-issue ready-to-eat meals with villagers for home-made preserved fruit and vegetables. He said the writing on the ration packs was Russian, not Ukrainian.

They had painted over identifying marks on their military vehicles with white circles, he added.

When residents approached their checkpoint and asked if they were allowed to travel on to the next village, called Komsomolske, the armed men asked, according to Chistyukhin: "Where's that?"

"The people at the new checkpoint, they were polite military men wearing green. Definitely not Ukrainian. They're definitely not from around here," he said.

'Polite green men' was the tongue-in-cheek term coined by many Russians to describe Russian soldiers, with identifying insignia removed, who arrived in Ukraine's Crimea region before Moscow annexed it in March.

Another witness, Alexei, who was in Kolosky on Monday, said that the armed men, when asked who they were, told residents only that they had come "to protect them".

That was an answer given by Russian military officers after they first seized state buildings in Crimea.

"It looks like direct invasion," said Alexei.

He said he and a friend counted what they said was 38 armored personnel carriers, 2 fuelling trucks and numerous military transport vehicles full of people in Kolosky and the immediate vicinity.

Heavy shelling around the village began as soon as the armored cars arrived, though Alexei said it was not clear who was doing the shelling.

Both said they first saw new military hardware on Sunday, which included anti-aircraft systems as well as artillery guns.

US: Russia directing new offensive in Ukraine



Pro-Russian rebels on a tank drive on a road in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration accused Russia on Wednesday of orchestrating a new military campaign in Ukraine that is helping rebel forces expand their fight in the country's east and sending tanks, rocket launchers and armored vehicles toward communities elsewhere.

"These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counteroffensive is likely underway in Donetsk and Luhansk," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, referring to two rebel regions in eastern Ukraine. She also voiced concern about overnight deliveries of materiel in southeast Ukraine, where separatists on Wednesday entered a key town linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula it recently annexed.

The reports of Russian activity are the latest wrinkle in months of fighting in Ukraine that spiraled out of street protests against the former government, the ouster of a pro-Russian president and then rebellion in the most pro-Russian parts of the country. Ukraine and Western governments Moscow has played a direct role in escalating the conflict, though Moscow denies directly supporting separatists.

Psaki said Russia was being dishonest about its actions, even to its own people.

Russian forces, she said, are being sent 30 miles inside Ukraine, without them or their families knowing where they are going. She cited reports of burials in Russia for those who've died in Ukraine and wounded Russian soldiers being treated in a St. Petersburg hospital. She said such actions show Russia isn't acting transparently.

Despite the critical rhetoric, Psaki didn't outline any immediate response.

She said the U.S. had options at its disposal, including giving more nonlethal assistance to Ukraine's military and possible coordinated sanctions with European allies. President Barack Obama and European allies will discuss Ukraine at next week's NATO summit, she said, but didn't outline any imminent steps Washington was considering.

The mayor of Novoazovsk, a port in southeastern Ukraine, said rebel forces entered his town Wednesday after three days of heavy shelling, capturing territory far from most battles with government troops. It wasn't clear if the rebels reached the area via Russia.

The new southeastern front raises fears the separatists are seeking to create a land link between Russia and Crimea. Novoazovsk lies on the Azov Sea on the road between the territories. If Russia or its proxies seize southeastern Ukraine, it would give them control over the entire Azov Sea and any oil or mineral riches it contains.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, met in the Belarusian capital of Minsk for their first ever one-on-one meeting, lasting more than two hours. There was no indication of a swift resolution to the fighting.


Pro-Russian rebels escort captured Ukrainian army prisoners, who walk in a cloud of flour thrown by onlookers, in a central square in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. Ukraine has retaken control of much of its eastern territory bordering Russia in the last few weeks, but fierce fighting for the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk persists.

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Russia's Putin urges release of Ukrainian soldiers


Armed pro-Russian separatists escort a column of Ukrainian prisoners of war as they walk across central Donetsk, August 24, 2014.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on pro-Russian separatists to release Ukrainian soldiers who have been surrounded by the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Putin's statement came several hours after Ukraine accused Russia of entering its territory with tanks, artillery and troops, and Western powers accused Moscow of lying about its role and dangerously escalating the conflict.

NATO said at least 1,000 Russian troops are in Ukraine and later released what it said were satellite photos of Russian self-propelled artillery units moving last week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the accusations of an invasion in a televised news conference on Friday, saying that Moscow "has not been presented with any facts" proving that it had happened.

For the second day, Russian markets reacted nervously to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine with the Russian ruble diving to the all-time low of 37.10 rubles against the U.S. dollar in early morning trading, but recovered later to 36.90 rubles.

Markets dropped on Thursday on reports of Russia's apparent invasion in Ukraine, sparking investors' fears of further economic sanctions directed at Moscow. The ruble lost 1.4 percent against the dollar and the MICEX benchmark shed 1.6 percent.

"I'm calling on insurgents to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who were surrounded in order to avoid senseless deaths," Putin said in the statement published on the Kremlin's web-site in the early hours on Friday.

Putin did not address the claims about Russia's military presence in Ukraine. Instead, he lauded the pro-Russian separatists for "undermining Kiev's military operation which threatened lives of the residents of Donbass and has already led to a colossal death toll among civilians."

Putin's statement could be referring to Ukrainian troops who have been trapped outside the strategic town of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, for nearly a week now. Protesters rallied outside the Ukrainian General Staff on Thursday, demanding reinforcements and heavy weaponry for the troops outside Ilovaysk, most of whom are volunteers.

A top rebel leader in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk promptly reacted to Putin's appeal but said the Ukrainian troops would have to lay down the arms before they were allowed to go.

"With all our respect to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the president of a country which gives us moral support, we are ready to open humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian troops who were surrounded with the condition that they surrender heavy weaponry and ammunition so that this weaponry and ammunition will not be used against us in future," Alexander Zakharchenko said on Russia's state Rossiya 24 television.

The U.N. human rights office on Friday accused both sides of deliberately targeting civilians.

Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have carried out murders, torture and abductions along with other serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, according to the mission's field work between July 16 and Aug. 17. The report also said Ukraine's military is guilty of human rights violations such as arbitrary detentions, disappearances and torture.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic, who visited Kiev on Friday, said the death toll had reached nearly 2,600 by Aug. 27, and described the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine as "alarming."


Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, meets with South African President Jacob Zuma in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Aug. 28, 2014.

Simonovic condemned rebels for preventing people from leaving cities caught up in the fighting. He also pointed to reports of violations by volunteer battalions under government control.

In a talk Friday afternoon, Putin compared Ukrainian troops firing at civilians and surrounding cities in eastern Ukraine to Nazi invaders who laid siege to the Soviet siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944. He said residents of Ukraine's east were "suppressed with force" because they disagreed with what he called a coup in Kiev in February.

To stop the bloodshed, the Kiev government should open talks with the rebels who took up arms in defense, he said.

Two columns of tanks and other equipment entered southeastern Ukraine at midday on Thursday, following heavy shelling of the area from Russia that forced overmatched Ukrainian border guards to flee, according to Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's national security council.

European Union foreign ministers met in Milan Friday to weigh the 28-nation bloc's stance amid increasing calls to beef up economic sanctions against Russia. Their discussion was expected to prepare possible further steps to be announced at a summit of the bloc's leaders Saturday in Brussels.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been a key power broker between the West and Russia, and they agreed Russia must face consequences for its actions.

Obama said Russia's activity in Ukraine would incur "more costs and consequences," though these seemed to be limited to economic pressure that will be discussed when Obama meets with European leaders at a NATO summit in Wales next week.

In a phone conversation with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko late Thursday, Merkel assured the Ukrainian leader of her support for "decisive actions" that could be taken Saturday, Poroshenko's press office said.

In Donetsk, the largest city under rebel control, the mayor's office reported sustained shelling across town on Friday morning. No casualties were immediately reported.

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guess the talks went well'

More sanctions!

Fine! If I have to!

/sanctions Chaosx

Hurray!

You've just increased my purchasing power in the far east, which means I can buy more gold and silver (my personal method, others use oil and natural gas).

Do it again I could use the cash to buy more stuff over here while actually gaining assets afar.

Just bring Ukraine into NATO so we can get Armageddon over with. I'm sick of waiting for Fallout 4 anyway.

Just bring Ukraine into NATO so we can get Armageddon over with. I'm sick of waiting for Fallout 4 anyway.

You're free to join ISIS at any time.

Can we just buy chaos a plane ticket to russia already?

Can we just buy chaos a plane ticket to russia already?

I'd prefer to live in the vault where incest is rampant and mandatory, thank you very much. Vault 101 REPRESENT!

"Speaking to young people at a summer camp, Putin told his countrymen..."

Ukraine seeks to join NATO; defiant Putin compares Kiev to Nazis

Putin invokes Godwin's Law!

For someone so critical of the U.S., Putin seems hell bent on copying all our mistakes.