Hollande, Merkel urge ceasefire in Ukraine

By Nicholas Vinocur

The two leaders call for new talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as tensions rise in eastern Ukraine.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande called Monday for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and fresh talks with Russia, as fighting flared up between troops loyal to Kiev and Moscow-backed rebels in the country’s east.
The two leaders, who met in Berlin with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at Poroshenko’s request on his country’s independence day, underscored the need for fresh talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of the four-way “Normandie” format. But they insisted that his absence should not be seen as a sign of worsening tensions.

“The Minsk accords must be the basis for a move toward peace in Ukraine,” Merkel told journalists at the meeting, adding that inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe had been harassed. “We are worried to learn of assaults suffered by the agents of the OSCE, who have not always been able to carry out their mission.”
Asked about Putin’s absence from the meeting, she added: “We are still in contact with the Russian president … It will be necessary to have a conversation in the Normandie format soon and I do not exclude a physical meeting.”
Poroshenko’s request for a meeting coincided with increased shelling by Moscow-backed separatists in the country’s east, as well as an escalation of bellicose rhetoric from pro-separatist groups. The embattled Ukrainian president said in a speech earlier on Monday that he would increase troop numbers in eastern Ukraine, warning that Russia had built up 50,000 soldiers on its side of the Ukrainian border and had 9,000 inside the country supplied with thousands of tanks and pieces of artillery. The buildup could point to an upcoming offensive, he added, according to The Associated Press.
However, French government sources said that while the shelling and troop buildup in eastern Ukraine showed that separatists wanted to put Kiev at a tactical disadvantage before the Minsk II agreements expire at the end of 2015, they should not be seen as proof of an upcoming offensive.
When you are preparing an offensive you take certain actions that can be seen,” a source close to Hollande said. “That is not the case.”
That seeming lack of alarm appeared to signal a lack of willingness on the part of Western powers to respond to the escalation in eastern Ukraine, other than supporting Ukraine’s government and pressing for the completion of an association agreement to bring the country closer to the European Union.
Since the signing of the so-called “Minsk II” agreements in February, the ceasefire has been violated multiple times and the death toll among civilians caught in the crossfire has mounted. But Poroshenko said the Minsk deal remained the best framework for achieving a peaceful outcome to the conflict.
“There is no alternative to the Minsk process,” he said. “The only threat to this process is the actions of the separatists.”