Government forces lost more ground to Russian-backed separatists
in heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, a day after
European leaders threatened to impose more sanctions on Moscow if
it doesn't end its support for the rebels.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he hoped a new round
of talks with rebels and Russian officials in Minsk on Monday could
yield progress toward a cease-fire. It wasn't clear whether Kiev
was ready to accept a deal that would leave the separatists in
control of their strongholds in the cities of Luhansk and
Donetsk.
Previously, Mr. Poroshenko had vowed to defeat them unless they
surrendered. But after dramatic reversals on the battlefield in
recent days--following what Kiev and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization say was an incursion of more than 1,000 Russian troops
to fight alongside the separatists--his negotiating position seems
weakened. European leaders were cool to his appeals for military
aid and held off immediately imposing more sanctions to give Russia
a chance to change course.
The Kremlin on Sunday stepped up its calls for Kiev to lay down
its arms and begin talks, effectively recognizing the Moscow-backed
rebels" hold over a major industrial region. Moscow also hinted at
support for the rebels" demands for independence.
President Vladimir Putin, in an interview on state television
Sunday, said Kiev should begin "substantive, meaningful
negotiations, and not on technical issues, but on the political
organization of society and statehood in the southeast of
Ukraine."
A Kremlin spokesman later told reporters that the reference to
"statehood" wasn't meant as an endorsement of the separatists"
demands for independence from Ukraine. But the spokesman said
Ukraine would have to discuss autonomy with a region he referred to
as "Novorossiya." That tsarist-era word, referring to a swath of
territory that includes much of present-day southern and eastern
Ukraine, has become a rallying cry for Russian nationalists. It had
faded from official Kremlin statements since the spring but
reappeared this week.
The latest events on the ground were a dramatic reversal for
Kiev, whose forces had been close to retaking the rebel strongholds
in Donetsk and Luhansk in early August, officials said. The
introduction of several units of Russian troops over the past week
or so has dramatically turned the tide.
Security officials in Kiev say the combination of Russian
troops, tanks and antiaircraft systems--which helped neutralized
Kiev's advantage in air power--allowed the separatists to reopen
key supply lines to Luhansk and Donetsk and open a new front for
the strategic port city of Mariupol. Moscow denies deploying
troops, though rebels say Russian military personnel are fighting
on their side, though while on vacation.
On Sunday, Ukraine exchanged 10 Russian paratroopers captured on
its territory early last week for 63 Ukrainian troops who had
crossed into Russia after becoming surrounded. Moscow has said the
paratroops crossed into Ukraine by accident.
Ukraine's setbacks have prompted alarm among Western officials,
but little signs of outright military aid.
Mr. Poroshenko returned Sunday from a European Union summit in
Brussels after the EU agreed to draw up options within a week for
possible new sanctions against Russia. He left, though, without any
promise of military support from the bloc's 28 governments.
In Washington, the White House welcomed the EU's moves and said
it remained committed to a diplomatic solution. But some
legislators said the sanctions weren't enough.
"If you're looking at it from Vladimir Putin's viewpoint, he's
done pretty well with minimum of penalty and as long as the
Europeans are dependent on his energy supply, they're not going to
do much," Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said on CBS's Face the
Nation.
He added the U.S. should provide Ukraine's military with weapons
and battlefield intelligence. "For God's sake, can't we help these
people defend themselves?" he said.
While European leaders said there was a clear determination to
press ahead with sanctions if Russia didn't scale back its
intervention, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said
leaders hadn't defined clear criteria for triggering fresh measures
at Saturday's meeting. But governments were ready to quickly move
ahead given the deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine,
he said at a postsummit news conference.
On Saturday, after a meeting with Mr. Poroshenko, European
Commission President José Manuel Barroso warned the situation was
approaching "a point of no return." He said the bloc hoped to see a
cease-fire but made clear that any agreement would necessitate a
withdrawal of Russian troops and quick measures to genuinely stem
the flow of weapons and fighters over the border.
A senior EU aide who participated in Saturday's summit said that
such conditions would likely be the prerequisite for any decision
to delay sanctions.
"A strict conditionality for "what if" wasn't discussed, [but]
the criteria would be the same as last time: cease-fire with
secured border and international monitoring would represent a
positive step," the aide said.
The aide said the bloc won't support steps that allow Russia to
turn eastern Ukraine into a permanent conflict zone that Moscow can
use to openly exert its influence. A cease-fire must lead to "a
process of disarming militias and national dialogue,
decentralization with Donbas as part of Ukraine," he said.
Still, some member states remain wary about pursuing tougher
measures, partly because of concerns about economic retaliation.
Some governments also believe that economic tensions will make a
political solution less likely.
Any further sanctions will need unanimous support among the EU.
A handful of countries--including Hungary, Slovakia, Cyprus and
Austria--have aired concerns about ramping up sanctions. Austrian
Chancellor Werner Faymann, on his way into Saturday's meeting, was
blunt about those concerns, although he didn't rule out increasing
economic pressure if Moscow continued to block a political
solution.
"The effect of sanctions as they have been applied so far hasn't
always produced what some expected," he said. "We should be
speaking less about sanctions," he said.
William Mauldin in Washington contributed to this article.
Write to Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com
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