U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear during his visit to Kyiv on Feb. 5 that his government has no plans to send arms to Ukraine. He, instead, appealed to the Kremlin to stick to the Minsk agreements signed in September, a deal that slowed but did not stop the Russia-backed war against Ukraine.
“We
are not seeking the conflict with Russia, no one does, nor President
(Petro) Poroshenko, nor the Unites States, nor the European
community,” Kerry said after his meeting with Poroshenko. “We
are very hopeful that Russia will take advantage of our broad-based
uniform acceptance of the notion that there is a diplomatic
solution.”
Kerry
added that U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Poroshenko and other Western allies at the Munich Security Conference later in the week to
highlight that they want peace.
Kerry’s
visit to Ukraine coincides with a surprise visit on the same day by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois
Hollande. They are coming to Ukraine with a new peace proposal.
“Together with Angela Merkel we have
decided to take a new initiative,” Hollande said before leaving for
Kyiv. “We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will
be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
Both leaders are scheduled to spend the
night in Ukraine before flying off to Moscow on Feb. 6, and then on
to Munich. This will be Merkel’s first visit to Moscow since Russia’s war against Ukraine started with the invasion and annexation of Crimea. Merkel refused to go to
Kazakhstan last month for another round of peace negotiations, saying
that she needed to be convinced that progress was possible.
But
the violence has escalated in Ukraine’s east since the start of the year and various U.S. officials have signaled that Obama was considering sending weapons to
Ukraine.
But
Kerry suggested that weapons are not forthcoming, although he warned that Russia should de-escalate.
“Russia
needs to make its choices and those choices are not just declared by
words, they have to be declared by actions. Russia needs to
demonstrate its commitment to end bloodshed.
Russia needs now to
cease military support of sparsest and bring people to the table to
achieve the lasting political solution,” he said.
Kerry
said the plan for peace is simple and laid out in the Minsk agreement. The
parties of the conflict will have to pull out heavy artillery, Russia
will have to remove its troops from Ukraine and restore Ukraine’s
sovereignty, both sides will have to release the hostages and Ukraine
will follow up with constitutional reform and pass a law on the special status of territories controlled by separatists.
“President
Poroshenko this morning in my conversation with him pointed out that
he is committed to supporting the special status law, which is
currently on the box, which provides greater economic, municipal and
political rights to the Donbas,” Kerry said. He added that
Ukraine would be ready to have new elections in Donbas, without
elaboration on details.
“That is the outline of peace,”
Kerry said. He added that today’s visit of Merkel and Hollande to
Ukraine shows that the West “stands united with Ukraine”
and called on Russia to show commitment to this plan.
“This is also the only way for Russian international isolation to come to an
end,” Kerry said.
