THE FAILURE OF GENEVA CONVENTION ON
UKRAINE DISTENSION
UKRAINE, RUSSIA AGREE TO FRAMEWORK TO DE-ESCALATE UKRAINE
TENSIONS. WSJ. By Laurence Norman, Jay Solomon.
04-17-14
NOTE from Hugo Adan, 04-17-14
The doct below –beyond
the mellifluous language- talks about the failure of Geneva on Thursday:
1- Andriy Deshchytsia –acting Foreing Minister from Kiev-
gave no pledge of pulling his country’s troops back from the eastern regions,
where they were sent this week for what his government called an antiterrorist
operation. The south is not happy with
such mission.
2- Moscow claims it is not behind the actions of the
separatists, so it can do nothing to persuade them to back down or surrender
their weapons. Moscow will not renounce their right to send troops inside
Ukraine if deems it necessary to protect ethnic Russians and Russian speakers
there, nor pull its troops back from the border with Ukraine, and not support
to elections in May.
3- The EU “international monitors” to be sent to the South as representing the
OSCE in charge of persuading not to be
separatist , disarm, clear government buildings and “entice” them to vote in
the coming elections (buying votes?) did not get the support from Russia. They won’t
get the support from people in the South either, the South want to have their own elections.
So the OSCE monitors have nothing to be
done there, other than espionage, or try
to bribe and corrupt people and embezzling the Oligarchy’s money. For sure, they
won’t be welcome there, after the sending of Kiev tanks and troops. The south is already persuaded on who is who in
their political arena.
4- Nothing has been said about NATO deployment of
military threats over the population in the South.
All those facts talk about the failure of the Geneva
Convention.
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UKRAINE, RUSSIA AGREE TO FRAMEWORK TO DE-ESCALATE UKRAINE
TENSIONS. WSJ. By Laurence Norman, Jay Solomon.
04-17-14
Agreement Includes Demobilizing Militias, Vacating Seized
Ukranian Government Buildings
The agreement, reached during more than six hours of talks in Geneva, could mark the first tangible step to defuse the political and security crisis in Ukraine since its Crimean region was annexed by Russia last month.
However the deal left many issues unanswered. It didn’t commit Russia to back next month’s Ukrainian presidential elections, nor did the U.S. and Europe pledge not to expand their punitive sanctions.
And while it calls for international monitors to “play a leading role in assisting Ukrainian authorities and local communities” on implementing the deal, how that would actually work was unclear.
The chosen group—the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe—has frequently stepped into conflict zones but usually to monitor elections and agreements rather than enforce them. Their officials are unarmed and therefore ultimately depend on persuasion rather than force.
Since Moscow claims it is not behind the actions of the separatists, it may claim it can do nothing to persuade them to back down or surrender their weapons.
The deal doesn’t require Russia to pull its troops back from the border with Ukraine, nor to renounce the right Russian President Vladimir Putin reasserted Thursday to send them into Ukraine if Moscow deems it necessary to protect ethnic Russians and Russian speakers there.
Western officials said however that the agreement calls for immediate de-escalation, and it will soon be clear if Moscow abides by the spirit of the accord.
Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia gave no pledge of pulling his country’s troops back from the eastern regions, where they were sent this week for what his government called an antiterrorist operation. But he said if there is real de-escalation, they “might not be involved in this operation fully.”
He said Kiev will give the OSCE time to try and persuade the separatists to disarm and clear government buildings. Kiev authorities “will not use force first.”
“The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security,” the participants in the talks said in a joint-statement. “All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation or provocative actions.”
As a result of the agreement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would hold off from imposing new economic sanctions on Russia for now, for what Western countries allege have been the Kremlin’s efforts to destabilize Ukraine. He said the U.S. would wait until it could assess whether the situation on the ground was improving.
Russia has denied any meddling in eastern Ukraine, a position also reiterated on Thursday by Mr. Putin.
The EU had already decided to expand the list of Russian officials to whom it applied asset freezes and travel bans following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. It wasn’t immediately clear if that will now go ahead. The U.S. extended its list of targeted individuals on Friday.
However the accord will almost certainly sideline for now Europe’s consideration of much broader economic sanctions
Mr. Kerry said the Obama administration viewed the agreement as a test of whether Mr. Putin was serious about de-escalating tensions in Ukraine.
“We expect in the next few days…some of these steps need to be seen and be evident,” Mr. Kerry said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov represented Moscow in the Geneva talks. European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also attended along with Mr. Deshchytsia.
The meeting was the highest-level direct talks between Moscow and Kiev since the annexation of Crimea last month. One official said the talks started off tense but quickly grew focused, with Moscow bringing ideas to the table.
Mr. Kerry has held regular talks with Mr. Lavrov on the Kiev crisis since protesters forced out former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally, in late February. U.S. officials have voiced frustration in the past with Mr. Lavrov, unclear if he had the power to cut deals on behalf of Mr. Putin.
Some protesters in primarily Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine have sought to follow the path of Crimea and hold a referendum on whether to secede from Ukraine.
Two of the biggest issues now are whether Ukraine will back off action against the separatists and if Moscow will relax its opposition to the May 25 election to choose a successor to Mr. Yanukovych, whom Moscow has insisted remains Ukraine’s legitimate president. The ballot is seen as key to creating a fully legitimate new government in Kiev.
In his news conference, Mr. Lavrov gave no hint that Moscow would support the vote noting that “there is no mention of this election” in the statement.
Both Mr. Kerry and Ms. Ashton said they received assurances from Ukraine’s government, including the president and prime minister, that they were committed to constitutional changes that would give far greater autonomy to Ukraine’s regions. They said they believed this process could serve as platform to defusing the political crisis in Ukraine.
–Greg White in Moscow contributed to this article.
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