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Ukraine releases video footage of what it says are Russian soldiers captured on its territory, as Presidents Poroshenko and Putin meet in Minsk. Video provided by Reuters Newslook
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko shake hands during a summit in Belarus' capital of Minsk on Aug. 26, 2014.(Photo: Sergei Bondarenko, AFP/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held one-on-one talks Tuesday in Minsk against a backdrop of rising tension over the Ukrainian capture of 10 Russian paratroopers on Ukrainian territory.
The leaders spent two hours discussing bilateral concerns following a regional economic summit in MInsk in which Putin said there is no military solution to the crisis in Ukraine. It was their first meeting since a chilly encounter in June during D-Day commemorations in Normandy, France.
"We are ready to exchange opinions on the current urgent crisis situation in Ukraine, which, we are convinced, cannot be solved through further escalation of the military scenario, without account for the vital interests of the country's southeastern regions, without peace dialogue with their representatives," Putin said at the meeting, which included representatives of the European Commission, the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, provided no immediate comment on the results of the talks, the state-run RT news network reported.
He said earlier that any bilateral talks would likely include "Ukrainian domestic crisis and the terrible humanitarian disaster in the east of the country, as well as the need for a ceasefire," according to RT.
The two shook hands for the cameras at the start of the conference in the Belarusian capital.
Putin's remarks appeared to be double-edged. It signaled Kremlin willingness to reduce its military support for ethnic Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, but also underscored Moscow's effort to stop Ukraine's military advances that have steadily gained ground against Russian-backed rebels.
Most of the fighting, which has cost at least 2,000 lives, has been concentrated in Ukraine's industrialized Donbass region and the key rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, which separatists have declared as independent states.
Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, told the gathering in Minsk that "the fate of the world and Europe" is being decided there.
"The purpose of my visit to Minsk is to stop the bloodshed and to start the process of finding a political compromise," he said, according to the Russian news agency RT.com. "The interests of the people of Donbass should and will be taken into account" in this solution, he added.
He called Ukraine "a responsible member of the international community," saying that it demands respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity. "The Ukrainian people have made their choice in favor of a unitary democratic European state," he said.
The talks come as the military tension in Ukraine shows no signs of abating.
The Facebook page for Ukraine's anti-rebel operation — which includes the military, the national guard and Interior Ministry forces — said 10 soldiers from a Russian paratrooper division were captured Monday in the area of Amvrosiivka, near the Russian border in the Donetsk region.
The website posted videos — which also appeared on Ukrainian TV and a Ukrainian newspaper website — of several of the Russian soldiers being questioned.
A Russian soldier identified as Ivan Milchakov was among 10 paratroopers Ukraine said was captured Aug. 25, 2014, on Ukraine territory. An interview was posted on YouTube.(Photo: Ukraine Defense Ministry/YouTube)
In one, a man identified as "Paratrooper Ivan Milchakov" said Russian soldiers are used as "cannon fodder" in Ukraine.
In another, a "Colonel Nemolyaev" said the soldiers were told they were going on exercises and did not realize they were in Ukraine until they saw a tank with a Ukrainian flag.
A source in the Russian Defense Ministry told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the servicemen were patrolling the Russian-Ukrainian border area "and most likely crossed (the border) by accident at an unequipped and unmarked zone, and as far as I know they didn't resist the armed forces of Ukraine."
The unnamed source added that Ukrainian soldiers have also crossed into Russia several times "but the Russian side did not make fuss about it and allowed them to return to Ukraine."
In Kiev, Ukraine rejected any claims that the Russian soldiers crossed the border by accident, calling the move part of a "special mission."
"If the elite troops of the Russian Armed Forces are not competent with topography and cannot find their way on the ground, then I have nothing to say about other troops and especially generals who send people to the east of Ukraine," Lysenko said, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.com.
Lysenko said Russian-backed rebels were attacking the border town of Novoazovsk, in southeastern Ukraine, at the time of the capture and that Ukrainian forces had destroyed 12 armored infantry vehicles in the area.
The incident comes one day after Ukraine charged that a Russian armed convoy had entered Ukraine in its southeast regions, widening a war that has been mainly concentrated on eastern Ukraine.Russia denied any incursion.
Russia consistently denies allegations from Kiev and Western countries that it is supporting or directing the rebels and that it fires artillery into Ukraine.
Contributing: Associated Press
Follow Doug Stanglin on Twitter @dstanglin
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