MINSK TALKS OVERSHADOW BY CONFLICTS
1st a
brief history on this conflict from a west-euro view
Ukraine. It’s considered
Europe’s most dangerous conflict since the 1991-2001 wars in the former
Yugoslavia.
Pro-Russian rebels in
the east of Ukraine have been fighting the country’s armed
forces on and off since February 2014.
Separatist leaders
and the Kyiv government have met on a number of occasions in an attempt to
agree on a peace plan for the region. Tentative ceasefires have been struck and
quickly broken.
What provoked the clashes? And what has happened along the
way? Here are a dozen key dates in the Ukraine conflict.
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November 2013:
President Viktor
Yanukovych, who won the presidential poll in 2010, abandons a proposed EU trade agreement. He seeks closer
co-operation with Russia, sparking demonstrations in the Ukrainian
capital, Kyiv. Ukraine had declared independence from the former USSR in 1991,
following a nationwide referendum.
----
December 2013:
Protests escalate,
with 800,000 people rallying in Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin throws Yanukovych an economic lifeline
before Christmas, offering to buy Ukraine’s debt and reduce energy prices.
----
January 2014:
Clashes turn
deadly. In late January Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigns.
----
February 2014:
Protests erupt
again in mid-February.On 20th, Kyiv sees its worst day of violence for
decades. 88 people are killed in 48 hours.
----
February 2014:
On 22nd, Yanukovych disappears, later appearing on TV to denounce a
coup. Parliament votes to oust the president from power and sets
presidential elections for May 25.
----
March 2014:
Crimea, after pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in the region in late
February, votes overwhelmingly to join Russia, it’s claimed; the West
dismisses the referendum as a sham. On 18th, Russian president Vladimir
Putin signs a bill to absorb Crimea into the Russian Federation.
----
March 2014:
Annexation of Crimea
prompts the US and EU to impose sanctions, including travel bans, on some of Russia’s
key figures. Pro-Russian protests continue in other parts of eastern Ukraine
----
May 2014:
On 11th, pro-Russian
separatists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk hold referendums.
Although the international community refuses to recognise the votes, each area
goes on to declare independence from Ukraine. The EU later signs an agreement
http://www.euronews.com/2014/09/16/eu-ukraine-association-agreement-sealed/ to foster closer ties with Ukraine.
http://www.euronews.com/2014/09/16/eu-ukraine-association-agreement-sealed/ to foster closer ties with Ukraine.
----
July 2014:
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down over
eastern Ukraine. All 298 people aboard die. The West blames pro-Russian rebels,
who deny involvement.
----
September 2014:
Ukraine and pro-Russian
rebels sign a shaky truce in the Belarus capital, Minsk, on
5th. Sporadic attacks continue over the following months. In October, pro-Western parties win Ukraine’s parliamentary elections.
----
December 2014:
Rouble loses nearly half its value, mainly due to falling
oil prices, but also partly because of Western sanctions over Ukraine.
----
February 2015:
On 11th, a fresh
round of peace talks are held in Minsk. New names added to the EU’s sanctions list.
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2 RELATED NEWS : Peace overshadow by conflicts
1-
Two days before Minsk meeting, Europe announced more
sanctions against Russia
THE EU’S SANCTIONS LIST.
Russian Deputy
Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov is expected to be sanctioned by the EU. The
move would focus on travel bans and asset freezes. The 59-year-old said that he
would be “honoured” to feature on the EU’s sanctions list.
“I am honoured because it means that I am working effectively. It is a
positive remark and it is a high evaluation or estimation of what I has (sic)
made,” he told euronews on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“I am a little surprised when I hear that somebody would like to
introduce sanctions against diplomats. What will be in the future? Who will
start dialogue?”
----
2-
Last night Vladislav
Deinego, representative of the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk people’s Republic’ put
forward his own proposals to end the bloodshed:
“The basis for the project that we have handed over was of a complex
nature of military and political measures which may give us a chance of a
result for a stable period of time.”
The project was not published + the south Federal Autonomist excluded from Minsk deals
----
Here a comment from Euronews.com:
Last September a deal
struck in Minsk proposed a 30 kilometre buffer zone between
Ukrainian troops and rebel separatists. But it never got off the ground. Since
then separatists, whom the West says are backed by Russia, have made
substantial territorial gains and won’t want to relinquish them.
There is little
optimism in the Belarus capital that any
document will be signed today to end the conflict . But hope of a crucial step
forward rests on that buffer zone or something like it from which heavy weapons
must be withdrawn.
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