France: Hollande, Merkel, Putin Back Truce Plan For Eastern Ukraine
The French Presidency says France, Germany, and Russia back plans for a complete cease-fire in eastern Ukraine from next week.
On August 26, representatives from Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists agreed to strive for an end to all truce violations from September 1 -- the day the new school year is to begin.
After the leaders of France, Germany, and Russia spoke by telephone on August 29, French President Francois Hollande's office said, "They strongly backed the call for a complete cease-fire from September 1."
It said Hollande also agreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin that it would be useful to hold a summit with Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko “in the coming weeks.”
During the phone call, Putin expressed his concern over the "continual bombardment of towns” by the Ukrainian Army and “the concentration of Ukrainian armed forces all along the demarcation line," the Kremlin said.
He also insisted on a direct dialogue between Kyiv and separatist leaders and the removal of economic blockades on the region.
Fighting between Ukrainian forces and the rebels has killed more than 6,400 people since March 2014.
A cease-fire agreement reached in Minsk in February has been regularly violated.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
An excerpt:
KYIV, Ukraine — Former platoon commander Vitaliy Yatsyk remains impressively calm when he remembers the day he says Russian tanks killed scores of his comrades outside a sleepy railway hub in eastern Ukraine.
The ambush was the deadliest of surprises: As far as the battered and encircled Ukrainian troops understood, they were to be granted safe passage by the Russians — a so-called “green corridor” — back to friendly territory after days of fierce fighting.
But it didn’t turn out that way.
Instead, tanks, artillery and machine gun fire blew apart their convoy as it sped away in panic, leaving bodies scattered and machinery burning across desolate fields and dirt roads.
“It ended up as a corridor of death,” Yatsyk says.