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Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart appeared to be edging towards a deal to restore gas to Kiev before winter sets in.
Putin held intensive one-on-one talks with Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of a summit in Milan to resolve two thorny issues: the fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and a possible energy deal.
It was unclear what, if any, progress had been made on the first but Putin reportedly indicated an initial agreement had been reached on the framework of a gas deal, which it is hoped will be finalised next week in Brussels.
“We agreed with our Ukrainian partners on the conditions to renew gas deliveries to Ukraine at least by winter, we agreed on all the parameters for an agreement,” he said.
Moscow turned off the taps to Kiev in June in a pricing dispute, and concerns are mounting about what a shortage could mean for Ukraine – and potentially the European Union – this winter. The issue of Kiev’s gas debts appeared not to have been resolved despite three meetings between Putin and Poroshenko in a day of intense diplomatic activity. After emerging from their final meeting, a one-on-one bilateral, the Russian leader called on EU countries to “lend Ukraine a hand” with the funding package required, AFP reported.
Although the Milan talks had not yielded “practical results” on the issue and some details still needed to be ironed out, Poroshenko said, “some certain progress” had been made. “Before 21 October, we hope to find a solution for the energy question,” he said. The positive mood music was backed by the French president, François Hollande, who had earlier said a gas agreement was “now truly within reach”.
It was a contrast to earlier in the day, when a breakfast meeting devoted largely to the security situation in eastern Ukraine attended by Putin, Poroshenko and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy failed to yield much concrete progress. David Cameron had taken part in the meeting which Italian and British diplomatic sources described, perhaps with trademark understatement, as “frank”.
Cameron was among the EU leaders who challenged Putin to say he would denounce elections planned by separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine next month as a key sign of commitment to the peace plan.
The Russian president “would not commit” to denouncing the rival polls scheduled for 2 November by pro-Russian rebels, a Downing Street source said.
Germany, France and Italy were understood to have reiterated their desire to send drones to help monitor the Ukrainian-Russian border.
A Kremlin spokesman later condemned unidentified participants at the meeting as “absolutely biased, non-flexible, non-diplomatic”. Despite the ceasefire struck on 5 September between Kiev’s forces and separatist rebels violence has continued to flare in some parts of eastern Ukraine. More than 3,000 people have died in the conflict.
After the meeting Cameron said that Putin had made it clear he didn’t “want a frozen conflict …[or] a divided Ukraine” but that he would need to act if he wanted EU sanctions to be eased.
“But if that’s the case,” he added, “Russia now needs to take the actions to put in place all that’s been agreed: getting Russian troops out of Ukraine, getting heavy weapons out of Ukraine and respecting all the written agreements and only recognising one legitimate set of Ukrainian elections. “And if those things don’t happen then clearly the European Union, Britain included, must keep in place the sanctions and the pressure so that we don’t have this sort of conflict in our continent.”
There were mixed messages from Russia, which continues to deny all reports of its military activity in Ukraine.
Putin initially told reporters the breakfast meeting had been positive, but a Kremlin spokesman later said the talks were “indeed difficult, full of misunderstandings, disagreements, but they are nevertheless ongoing, the exchange of opinion is in progress,” the spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russia has been accused of using gas supplies as a pawn in political power play against adversaries in eastern Europe. Complicating matters yesterday, a Polish colonel was jailed for three months for spying for Russia, according to AFP. The unidentified officer was arrested on Wednesday with a Russian lawyer, also suspected of spying. “The two cases are linked but that does not mean that the two men were working in tandem,” Andrzej Seremet, prosecutor general, was quoted as saying by the Polish news agency PAP.
