US secretary of State John Kerry is greeted by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at the Russian ambassador's residence in Paris
John Kerry, US secretary of state, met Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, on Sunday evening in Paris for talks that could shape Ukraine’s future as Russian troops mass on the country’s border.
The talks follow a late-night phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin to US President Barack Obama on Friday, when the two discussed potential diplomatic solutions to the Ukraine crisis. In a sign of the apparent urgency both sides placed on the talks, Mr Kerry turned his aircraft round after a refuelling stop at Ireland’s Shannon airport on Saturday to return to Paris for the meeting.
Russia restated demands it made two weeks ago as it moved to annex Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. They included military neutrality for Ukraine, a federal structure for the country, and promotion of Russian to an official state language alongside Ukrainian.
Meanwhile, Moscow has stationed tens of thousands of additional troops and tank units on its border with Ukraine, fuelling fears it may try to invade or push further into the country.
Following Mr Obama and Mr Putin’s call, the White House released a statement stressing the possibility of a US-Russian compromise in the event that Moscow “pulls back its troops and does not take any steps to further violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”. Washington has been pressing for international monitors to be deployed in Ukraine, with an OSCE mission under way, and for early elections.
The Kremlin’s statement on the call, however, struck a different note. It said Mr Putin had repeated his warnings of “extremists” in Ukraine who, he claimed, were “committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents” and certain government agencies “with impunity”.
Moscow also called for a “fair and comprehensive settlement” to the conflict in Transnistria, the pro-Russia breakaway Moldovan republic, which has been seen as another possible target for Russian military intervention.
Diplomats with knowledge of talks to date between Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov say the Russian foreign minister appears to have been given almost no negotiating flexibility over Russia’s demands.
In an interview on Russian television over the weekend, Mr Lavrov denied that Russia had any plans to invade eastern Ukraine. In Donetsk, which has seen weekly anti-Kiev rallies with demonstrators sometimes numbering in the thousands, the situation was much calmer on Sunday, with only 300 people showing up to a planned pro-Russia rally.
However, Mr Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s demands regarding federalisation and the promotion of Russian to an official state language, which he said Kiev had rejected.
Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine’s interim foreign minister, “said that our proposal was unacceptable because federalisation goes against the fundamental principles of Ukraine’s state set-up”, Mr Lavrov said. “It is not clear why. I don’t know anything about such principles. Second, the idea of making Russian Ukraine’s second state language was also rejected as unacceptable.
“We can conclude that if the Ukrainian leadership persists in rejecting the idea of federalisation . . . if they continue to ignore ethnic Russians and the Russian language, the constitutional reforms that they have begun will not yield any sensible results,” Mr Lavrov said.
Concerns increased of further tensions in Crimea after Crimean Tatars voted at a meeting in Bakhchisaray, their historic capital, to seek self-determination and appealed to international bodies to uphold their rights as a people.
At an extraordinary meeting of the Kurultay, the Tatars’ national council, delegates adopted a resolution vowing to “launch political and legal procedures [for the] ethnic and territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tatar people on their historical territory, Crimea”.
The measure appealed to the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE and other institutions to support them in their push for autonomy.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea has worried the Tatars, who make up about 300,000 of the Ukrainian peninsula’s 2m population, and are now uncertain whether to accept Russian citizenship and acquiesce to the takeover or remain in their homeland with “foreign” passports.
Many boycotted the March 16 referendum which was used to endorse Russia’s widely condemned takeover of Crimea.
Additional reporting by Richard McGregor in Washington
The Russian Demands
● Military/political neutrality for Ukraine, to be guaranteed by Russia, the EU, US and a UN Security Council resolution.
FT Verdict: This is the most difficult demand on which to find agreement. If this means a pledge not to join the EU, that seems impossible for Ukraine’s government. Ukrainians who protested, and died, on Kiev’s Maidan were holding EU flags. Military neutrality may be possible. Support for Nato membership has been lower in Ukraine than for EU membership. But after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, breaching the 1994 Budapest Memorandum which pledged it to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, neutrality – even guaranteed by the UN Security Council – would be difficult for Kiev to sell to Ukrainians.
● Creation of a constitutional assembly, with equal representation of Ukraine’s regions, to carry out constitutional reform leading to a federal structure.
FT Verdict: This would be popular in the east, but some senior Ukrainians in Kiev warn this could weaken a young country with only 22 years of independence and strengthen Russian influence. With ethnic Ukrainians in the majority in all regions except Crimea, they say it is wrong to create a federal structure on linguistic/cultural grounds. More devolution of powers to regions, short of a full federal structure, seems possible.
● Russian as a second state language.
FT Verdict: Again, popular in the east, though western Ukrainians fear it would undermine Ukrainian, long discriminated against in Soviet times but which has made a comeback post-independence. It is probably deliverable, however.
● After constitutional reforms, elections to all state and regional bodies.
FT Verdict: Ukraine is committed to presidential elections on May 25 and parliamentary elections seem likely after that. Kiev’s government has started constitutional reforms but will be very reluctant to delay the presidential poll.
● The confiscation of illegal arms and the clearance of buildings and streets occupied by protesters in Kiev.
FT Verdict: Ukraine’s government needs to do this anyway. Should be deliverable by itself, but could be complicated if Kiev has to agree to other demands unpopular with demonstrators.
● Respect the result of Crimea’s referendum.
FT Verdict: This means in essence recognising Russia’s annexation. It is politically difficult and many Ukrainians will object, but some suggest Crimea was a drain on the budget and Ukraine would be better to focus now on establishing a flourishing market economy within its mainland borders – which might one day attract Crimea back.
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