Presidents of Ukraine and Russia to meet at Minsk summit

Russia and Ukraine said yesterday their presidents would meet, together with top European Union officials, in Belarus’s capital of Minsk on August 26th to discuss their confrontation over Ukraine, which has plunged relations to an all-time low.

The meeting will put Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko in the same room for the first time since a passing encounter in France in June, though Ukrainian officials were at pains to say no face-to-face meeting between the two men was planned as yet.

Nonetheless, with a Ukrainian military offensive making inroads against pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials were upbeat that the Minsk meeting could be a diplomatic opportunity for Kiev and provide a forum for bringing fresh diplomatic pressure to bear on Mr Putin to end Moscow’s support for the rebels.

“Today a clear diplomatic roadmap is taking shape. We can come up with new approaches that will allow us to talk about a move from war to peace,” Valeri Chaly, Mr Poroshenko’s top foreign policy aide, said.

Mr Putin will be accompanied at the talks by Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose countries also belong to the Russia-led Customs Union which the pro-western Kiev leadership spurned in favour of EU integration when it came to power in February. The EU team will be headed by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

A statement from Mr Poroshenko’s administration said the meeting would discuss issues related to implementing the landmark association agreement Kiev signed with the EU, energy security and “stabilising the situation in Ukraine”.

Backing the rebels

But Mr Chaly clearly suggested that Mr Poroshenko would press Mr Putin to end what he views as Moscow’s support for, and arming of, the rebels, who seem increasingly in disarray.

Moscow denies Kiev’s charges that it is allowing in supplies of heavy weaponry and sending Russian fighters there.

Rebel losses in the past few days appear to have increasingly pushed Mr Putin into a tight corner.

If he remains silent and allows their defeat, he risks losing face before the “hawks” at home and the Russian people, who largely applauded Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in March.

But by trying to maintain pressure on Kiev’s pro-western leaders through further support for the rebels, he risks wider economic sanctions from the United States and EU.

“I hope that this direct format of concrete discussion on many questions including ending aggression [will have results] because no trade and economic questions can be considered without this key question [being addressed],” Mr Chaly said.

Mr Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said only that the leaders “will discuss relations between Ukraine and the Customs Union and there will be a number of bilateral meetings.” – (Reuters)