Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed a seven-step road map for ending the violence in eastern Ukraine. Among other things, it calls for rebels to halt their operations, Ukrainian forces to pull back from their positions and an end to government airstrikes. (Reuters)
KIEV — Heavy shelling rocked the outskirts of a key Ukrainian port city Friday just hours ahead of talks on ending the conflict.
Witnesses reported heavy shelling north and east of the city of Maruipol, a strategic city of some half a million people that lies between Russia to the east and the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula to the west.
Seizure of Mariupol, which could provide a land corridor between Russia and Crimea, would give Russian-backed separatists a strong presence in the area just as talks aimed at ending the conflict are due to start later Friday in Minsk, Belarus. Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the pro-Russian separatists and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are meeting in Minsk.
The crisis began around 2 p.m. Thursday, when six insurgent tanks and vehicles assaulted a Ukrainian checkpoint near the village of Shyrokyne about 15 minutes east of the port city of Mariupol, soldiers on the ground said. The checkpoint was destroyed and the Azov Battalion, Ukraine’s volunteer soldier brigade in Mariupol, fell back.
Fighting and shelling in Shyrokyne continued throughout the night and into Friday morning, with dozens of casualties, the soldiers said. Mariupol has been fortifying and bracing for an attack on its eastern flank for a week, after Russian-backed insurgents took over the town of Novoazovsk, closer to the Russian border
Friday’s apparent rebel offensive on Mariupol comes after two weeks of rebel gains that saw the separatists turn the tide against Ukrainian forces, who had appeared close to crushing the Russian-backed rebellion. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of significantly backing the recent rebel surge with both troops and firepower. Moscow denies it.
Despite Friday’s talks, many Ukrainians remain deeply pessimistic about the future and skeptical the talks will bring about an end to the five-month-old conflict.
Around the country’s capital of Kiev and in the war-torn east, Ukrainians interviewed Thursday said they were weary of the fighting, which has grown more violent in recent days and left more than 2,600 people dead, according to the United Nations figures.
But they differed widely about whether they think their new president, Petro Poroshenko, will be able to negotiate an end to the crisis. Or whether Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of supplying the rebel force with troops and tanks, can be trusted now.
The uncertainty was most keenly felt among the pro-
democracy demonstrators who for months stood on Kiev’s Independence Square and in February ousted the country’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Veterans of the “Maidan,” as the square is called, worried that any concessions to Moscow would pull them back into Russia’s authoritarian orbit and risk further violence.
“We only partially achieved our goals. The system hasn’t been changed,” said Konstantin Ivanov, 31, a sound and light engineer. “People will be in the streets. There will definitely be another Maidan” protest.
Poroshenko spoke at the NATO summit in Wales on Thursday evening, saying he had “careful optimism” about the possibility of a peace deal Friday. Ukraine in recent weeks has stepped up its attempts to join the NATO alliance — a move strongly opposed by Russia. The Kremlin sees keeping Ukraine out of NATO as a central pillar of its own defense strategy.
“We have to be cautious in our assessment,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO’s secretary general. “If we are witnessing a genuine effort to find a political solution, I would welcome it.”
Earlier in the day, Poroshenko and the rebel commanders set times for a Friday cease-fire, contingent on what happens at the talks.
Poroshenko and Putin had begun talking early Wednesday about a plan for peace, a development that surprised many in Kiev. Putin took the reins of the process early, saying he and Poroshenko had agreed to a seven-point plan that would at least temporarily freeze the conflict on the ground. He is insisting on a large-scale Ukrainian military pullback and the introduction of international monitors to ensure that fighting does not resume.
Many in Kiev said they were skeptical of Putin, after months of denials from Moscow that Russians were involved in aiding the rebel side with troops and superior firepower. A large-scale incursion by Russian armored vehicles and soldiers — documented in satellite photos released by NATO — helped turn the tide on the battlefield in favor of the rebels in recent days, Ukrainian and Western military officials have said.
A wounded soldier from the Aidar Battalion, a volunteer group of soldiers that includes former Maidan protesters, said he wanted peace but did not believe that it would be achieved anytime soon. He said he had just come to Kiev for treatment of a bullet wound he suffered in the battle for the town of Ilovaysk. A group of more than 200 men had been trapped behind rebel lines there for over a week, leaving dozens of casualties.
“Out of 24 men in my unit, only eight remained living,” the soldier said. As is common practice, for security reasons, he gave only his nickname, Tank.
“Yes, we want peace. And we would be crazy to continue to fight Russia,” he said.
He said that his battalion would respect a cease-fire but that he did not expect one to hold.
“It will not end like this,” he said. “I will go and fight still.”
Many in the country’s east who support a greater autonomy for the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk — where many people want closer ties with Russia — were supportive of Moscow’s involvement in the peace talks.
“People don’t really care here who they will be living under. They don’t care if it’s going to be called Ukraine, Russia or Novorossiya,” said Sergei, an insurance company employee from Luhansk.
Sergei, who did not give his full name because he fears for his safety, used the czarist-era term, repopularized by Putin, for a belt of territory that was once controlled by Imperial Russia and includes eastern Ukraine. The term translates as “New Russia.”
He said he has grown to hate the Ukrainian armed forces after his home city was relentlessly shelled. “I used to be proud to be called a Ukrainian,” he said. “Now I’m not. I can’t be proud of the side that is shooting people.”
Ukraine’s political turmoil began in November when Yanukovych declined to sign a trade agreement that would have brought the country closer to Europe. After his ouster in February, Russia quickly moved to annex the Crimean Peninsula. Then fighting moved into eastern Ukraine.
Just weeks ago Ukrainian forces had made gains on the rebels. But since early last week the fighters have battled with renewed strength, after what the Ukrainian military said was a large-scale Russian incursion into southeastern Ukraine.
Analysts have theorized that a cease-fire could lead to a “frozen conflict” in eastern Ukraine with breakaway territories living under Russian support, similar to the current situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.
A U.N. report last week said that more than 1 million people had been displaced by the conflict, and many war-weary Ukrainians said they would be willing to support a plan that might ultimately partition their country just to see an end to the bloodshed.
Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Deane reported from Rome. Natalie Gryvnyak in Kiev contributed to this report.
Annie Gowen is The Post’s India bureau chief and has reported for the Post throughout South Asia and the Middle East.
Michael Birnbaum is The Post’s Moscow bureau chief. He previously served as the Berlin correspondent and an education reporter.
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