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Ukraine foes to pull back troops ahead of Russia summit
BOGDANIVKA, Ukraine, Nov 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Ukraine’s army and Kremlin-
backed separatists are set Friday to complete the last phase of a troop
pullback in the war-torn east in a key step towards a high-stakes summit with
Russia.
The long-awaited move is a precondition for the first face-to-face talks
between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr
Zelensky.
The summit, whose date has yet to be set, will be mediated by French
President Emmanuel Macron and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel.
As long as no ceasefire violations take place in the area, the withdrawal
was due to start around noon (10:00 GMT) in the Donetsk region between the
villages of Petrivske in the separatist-controlled zone and Bogdanivka in
Kiev-controlled territory, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Ageyev told
AFP.
But in a sign of persisting tensions, a Kiev soldier was killed Thursday in
the Donetsk region although not in the disengagement area, the army said.
The warring sides held two similar pullbacks in June and October.
The withdrawal of forces would be the “final precondition” for organising
the four-way summit, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said this
week.
He has expressed hope that the meeting, the first at such a high level
since 2016, could take place in Paris in November.
– ‘Many questions’ unresolved –
The summit has been repeatedly postponed as previous attempts to organise
pullbacks of troops have failed, most recently on Monday.
Russia has said it backs a new summit but refused to commit to a timetable.
“We want to hold the summit as soon as possible, but at the same time we
consider this summit has to be well organised to ensure it gets the necessary
results,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
He added it was “too early to say” whether the meeting could take place
this year because “many questions” remained unresolved.
The troop pullbacks are one of the Kremlin’s conditions to stage a summit
that Kiev hopes could restart the stalled peace process.
Soldiers on Friday were set to signal their intention to withdraw by firing
a flare before moving back a kilometre, Kiev said.
Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) will be observing the disengagement which could be spread over several
days.
If the pullback goes ahead, it raises the possibility of a withdrawal along
the more than 400-kilometre (249-mile) frontline.
Since coming to power in May, comedian-turned-president Zelensky, 41, has
sought to revive a peace process to end the separatist conflict in eastern
Ukraine that has claimed some 13,000 lives since 2014.
But those efforts have stalled as Zelensky’s plan, including the troop
pullback, has been strongly criticised in Kiev, especially by war veterans
and nationalists.
In the run-up to the summit, Ukrainian, Russian and separatist negotiators
also agreed on a roadmap that envisages a special status for the separatist
territories if they conduct free and fair elections under the Ukrainian
constitution.
The war in eastern Ukraine broke out a month after Moscow annexed the
Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of giving financial and
military backing to separatists, which Russia denies.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1004 hrs