Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold military consultations over the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said late on Tuesday after two hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The consultations between members of both countries’ general staff and border guard commands are meant to fulfil Ukraine’s demand to re-establish government control of the border with Russia, Mr. Poroshenko told reporters in Minsk, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.
Mr. Putin said after the meeting with Mr. Poroshenko, both the sides had agreed to swiftly revive so-called contact group talks between Russia, Ukraine and the Organization of Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE).
Mr. Putin was adamant that Moscow would not hold any talks about a ceasefire in Ukraine because Russia was not a party to the conflict. “We can only help to create trust,” he said.
Speaking separately from Mr. Poroshenko, Mr. Putin said that energy talks with Kiev would start again soon and that a working group of Russian, Ukrainian and European Union experts would seek to address Moscow’s concerns about a trade agreement between Kiev and Brussels. Mr. Putin warned that Russia would take measures to protect its economy if its interests are not taken into account, Russian news agencies reported.
Earlier, he accused the EU and Ukraine of causing some 3 billion dollars in losses to the Russian economy by signing a landmark trade treaty this summer. He argued Ukraine was no longer importing Russian goods in favour of those from the EU, while flooding the Russian market with its products.
Tuesday’s talks between Mr. Putin and Mr. Poroshenko were their first lengthy meeting since Mr. Poroshenko was elected in May. They held only brief talks during D-Day anniversary observations in June in Normandy.
The meeting in Minsk was preceded by talks with senior EU officials and the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan, whose countries form a Customs Union with Russia. The meetings were overshadowed by ongoing battles between Ukrainian government troops and separatist militias, which Kiev alleged were being reinforced by regular Russian soldiers.
The Ukrainian Security Service, SBU, said on Tuesday that it caught 10 Russian paratroopers who had crossed into Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region. The SBU published video interviews with four soldiers, in which they claimed that they had been sent across the border under the pretext of military exercises.
Mr. Putin said the Russian soldiers may have entered Ukraine by mistake during a border patrol, echoing earlier comments by the Russian Defence Ministry.
Dzerkalniy, the village where the SBU said the Russians were detained, is 25 kilometres from the border.
The area south—east of Donetsk has seen heavy fighting between pro—Russian separatists and Ukrainian government troops eager to seal the Russian border. Separatist representatives claimed Tuesday that more than 30 government soldiers were killed when rebel forces recaptured a strategic high ground and a town in the region.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council said that more than 200 separatist fighters had been killed in eastern Ukraine during the last 24 hours.
Farther south, reports from Mariupol said that civilians were fleeing the industrial centre on the Sea of Azov after heavy fighting broke out near the border. The Ukrainian government has claimed a fresh attack by Russian forces disguised as separatist militia.
The conflict has claimed an estimated more than 2,000 lives in the last four months.
The Ukrainian government has long accused Moscow of aiding the separatists by sending heavy weapons and fighters across the porous border, and alleged that more and more Russian soldiers have crossed into Ukraine.
Those claims were backed by fresh reports of Russian soldiers thought to have been killed in action in Ukraine. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Tuesday that at least three Russian servicemen were recently buried in a graveyard in Russia’s western Pskov region.
Two Russian reporters were assaulted and threatened Tuesday when they investigated the graveyard. Unknown attackers threw stones at their car and punctured its tyres, according to the Dozhd TV station, for whom one of the journalists works.
Pskov is home to Russia’s most famous paratrooper division. Last week, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu officially thanked members of the division for their part in the special operation to “return” Crimea to Russia.
The Ukrainian region was annexed by Russia in March when hundreds of unmarked soldiers swarmed the Black Sea peninsula.
