Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saturday François Hollande, the first Western leader to visit Moscow since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, while Kiev announced new peace talks on Ukraine.
The meeting between the two leaders came as the strongman of the Kremlin is more isolated than ever on the international scene, shunned by Western leaders who accuse him of fueling a conflict that has claimed more than 4,300 dead in eight months.
“We must avoid having other walls that come (we) separate. At one point, we must also be able to overcome obstacles and find solutions” , launched the President Francois Hollande, twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the symbol for more than twenty years the division of Europe. “We have to find solutions together. There is a time periods where you have to seize opportunities. We got here,” said the head of the French state, alongside Putin, in a small lounge of the Moscow airport Vnukovo.
The Russian president said for his part that “these problems are difficult.” “But I think our discussions have positive results. Your visit today, what it is rather short, is a real working visit, (and) will also be successfully and advanced” a- he added.
The meeting between Putin and Hollande takes place on a French initiative, which has submitted the principle Friday to the Russian side.
This is the first time since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis that goes to Moscow a Western leader, whose country takes part in the sanctions imposed against Moscow, accused by the West, including France, to support separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. The French leader had called on Friday during his official visit to Kazakhstan to “de-escalation” after a speech of Russian President to anti-Western accents. Vladimir Putin pointed particular responsibility of the West in this crisis.
Tuesday Negotiations on Ukraine
Before arriving in Moscow, Francois Hollande s ‘had met with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The head of the Ukrainian state announced an “agreement in principle” for peace negotiations on Ukraine on Tuesday in Minsk. The previous meeting in the Belarusian capital early September took place with the participation of rebel leaders, Russian representatives and officials of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
She had ended September 5th for a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, although it was less respected in a few weeks to become nonexistent.
Tuesday, parallel negotiations in Minsk, a cease-fire must be endorsed by the separatists and Kiev, which announced Thursday the surprise agreement on the complete cessation of fire in the east.
But this announcement is not the first, was to be taken with caution, and was accompanied by a renewed intensity of the fighting, which have done over the past 48 hours six dead and 20 wounded among the Ukrainian soldiers by the Ukrainian military authorities.
Some Ukrainian media claim that many men of “Russian elite troops” were killed in the fighting around the airport and the need to recover the bodies was the reason for this short break.
In Donetsk, the epicenter of the fighting, was quiet Saturday morning, according to AFP journalists on the spot.
Problem thorny Mistral
The diplomatic crisis between the West and Russia double for France, another thorny issue: the refusal of Francois Hollande to deliver the Mistral warships sold Russia until the situation will not change in Ukraine. But Putin assured that this issue has not been addressed. “We have not even mentioned the subject” , he told reporters after meeting with Holland. “There is a contract, we assume that it will be respected, otherwise we hope you will give us the money we paid.”
The day before The head of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov showed annoyance and said: “It’s a reputation problem for France. They must meet all their obligations under the contract. “
Francois Hollande was announced on November 25 and the report ” until further notice “ of delivery first Mistral, considering “that the current situation in the east of Ukraine” still does not allow the delivery. “For the moment we do not book ‘, further renchéri Friday, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, adding: ” We could never deliver. It is necessary that the Russians are aware of this situation. “
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