Putin, Zelenskiy to meet in bid to break deadlock on eastern Ukraine peace process:
By RFE/RL
The presidents of Ukraine and Russia are set to meet in Paris on December 9 for long-awaited talks on resolving the military conflict in eastern Ukraine that has left more than 13,000 people dead since 2014.
The talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will be facilitated by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the so-called Normandy Format.
It will be the first time the heads of Ukraine and Russia have met since 2016 and the first meeting ever between Zelenskiy, who was elected in April, and Putin.
Moscow denies direct involvement in the conflict between separatist formations in parts of eastern Ukraine and the Kyiv government, although Russia provides military, economic, and political support to the separatists and there has been substantial evidence of Russia's direct military involvement.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in November 2016 that the war in eastern Ukraine was "an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation."
All sides have made efforts to moderate expectations of a breakthrough in the run-up to the summit. The Kremlin wants to maintain as much influence over Kyiv as it can, using the land held by the separatists it supports in the Donbas as a lever. The Ukrainian president must balance the benefits of progress toward peace with the potentially disastrous risk of being seen as surrendering to Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on December 6 in Rome that Moscow expects "additional agreements that will help eliminate this conflict."
He added that Moscow was seeking "to really ensure the security of the people of the Donbas, to guarantee their rights as set forth in the Minsk agreements, and to stop this conflict."
The Minsk agreements on creating a road map to resolve the conflict were reached in the Belarusian capital in 2014 and 2015. The accords call for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, the restoration of Kyiv's control over all Ukraine's borders, a law on special status for the territory controlled by the Moscow-backed separatists, and the holding of elections on that territory.
However, their implementation has been largely stymied.
The path to the December 9 summit was smoothed in part by a large exchange of prisoners in September and by Moscow's return to Kyiv in November of three Ukrainian naval vessels Russia had seized in the Black Sea in late 2018.
In addition, the two countries agreed in October to withdraw from three flash points along the front line, two in the Luhansk region and one in Donetsk.
Zelenskiy, for his part, said earlier this month that the mere fact the talks had restarted was his "first victory" in efforts to end the war.
He has said previously that he will push three main ideas in Paris: a further exchange of prisoners, implementing a cease-fire agreement, and the disbanding of "illegal armed formations" in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy visited front-line troops on December 6, telling the soldiers "it is a lot easier to hold talks while feeling your strength and your support behind me."
The Kremlin has said that Putin plans a one-on-one meeting with Zelenskiy. Kyiv, however, has said only that such an encounter is under consideration.
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on December 6 posted online a statement advising Zelenskiy not to meet directly with Putin.
"Do not trust Putin," he recommended. "Never and in nothing." He warned his successor that Putin will use "KGB-style manipulations, flattery, and play on the president's emotions and flaws."
In Kyiv on December 8, thousands of people demonstrated under Ukrainian flags on Independence Square to warn Zelenskiy to avoid crossing any "red lines" in the negotiations.
They cited the need to maintain territorial integrity and avoid federalization, to keep up Ukraine's pro-European course, to steer clear of actions to legitimize the occupation of Ukrainian territory, to insist on the return of Russian-occupied Crimea, and to keep open the possibility of lawsuits filed internationally over Russia's actions in Ukraine.
The Paris meeting comes amid strikes and sometimes-violent social protests in the French capital and other cities that have snarled the country's transportation network. At least 800,000 people marched on December 5 in Paris, and police used tear gas several times.
The Kremlin said on December 6 that Putin was not concerned about the situation and that France could "successfully" host the summit.
In addition, Ukraine has been at the center of impeachment hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives against U.S. President Donald Trump, in an unfolding political drama that has raised questions about long-standing U.S. support for Kyiv at a time when officials, diplomats, and analysts say it needs it most.
European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told Ukrinform on December 6 that although the European Union was not a party to the Normandy Format, "we strongly support this format and the implementation of the Minsk agreements."
The conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in early 2014, shortly after Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea. (Christopher Miller contributed to this report from Kyiv. w/AFP, Reuters, AP, The New York Times, TASS, and Ukrinform)
Ukraine seeks court trial in London to avoid paying $3 Billion Eurobond to Russia:
By RFE/RL
Ukraine will ask the British Supreme Court on December 9 to not compel it to pay nearly $4 billion in debt to Russia from a Eurobond that Moscow had refused to have restructured when Kyiv's economy nosedived following the Euromaidan pro-democracy movement nearly six years ago.
Kyiv is seeking a favorable ruling in London because the bond was structured under English law and should've been repaid in December 2015, when the $3 billion Eurobond matured.
However, Moscow is asking for a summary ruling to force Kyiv to pay the amount with interest without a trial going forth in what is part of a larger geopolitical tussle that includes the occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Russia fomenting a separatist military conflict in the easternmost Luhansk and Donetsk regions, and the weaponization of energy supplies.
So far, Kyiv -- in wishing to challenge the debt in court -- has managed to convince British judges in lower courts that the Eurobond was issued under duress.
When former President Viktor Yanukovych's administration sold the debt to Russia in December 2013, Moscow was applying "massive, unlawful, and illegitimate economic and political pressure to Ukraine" then, according to Alex Gerbi, a partner at the law firm representing Kyiv in the case.
A month earlier, Yanukovych had rejected a wide-ranging political and trade accord with the European Union known as an Association Agreement that led to protests in Kyiv demanding the decision be reversed.
Those protests grew to include calls for Yanukovych's ouster and he eventually fled the country for Russia in February 2014 in the wake of deadly shootings in Kyiv, where about 100 protesters were killed.
Moscow invaded Crimea the same month and annexed it from Ukraine, after which the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014.
Former Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko then tried to include the Russian Eurobond in a 2015 restructuring plan that included other liabilities, a process in which Moscow refused to participate.
International investors are observing this case related to the overall sovereign debt restructuring of $18 billion and the upcoming December 19 case in Kyiv concerning the nationalization of PrivatBank, Ukraine's largest commercial bank that once belonged to billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskiy. (w/Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters)
That's the end of the live blog for today. See you again tomorrow!
Video from the Kyiv rally where protesters demanded a tough stance on Russia ahead of peace talks in Paris.
From our news desk:
The death toll from a fire at a technical college in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa has risen to 10, officials say.