Talks on Ukraine Crisis Open in Kiev Without Representation for Separatists
KIEV,
Ukraine — Senior Ukrainian officials and leading public figures opened
talks here on Wednesday that they portrayed as an effort to end the
country’s six-month-old political crisis, but the provisional Ukrainian
government offered little compromise and there was no one present
directly representing the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Officials said the negotiating effort would continue with a session on Saturday in the embattled eastern city of Donetsk.
Pro-Russian
leaders in the east reacted dismissively, saying they were not invited
to participate in the so-called round-table talks, while officials
connected to the region who did attend urged the government to develop
concrete proposals that could be presented at the next meeting.
Oleksandr
Yefremov, a member of Parliament from Luhansk, urged the provisional
government to put forward solid initiatives. “I really would like to see
all the officials who are now represented by the acting president and
prime minister come to the round table, come with some proposals and not
just slogans,” Mr. Yefremov said. “We have to give answers.”
While
some officials from the east, like Mr. Yefremov, attended the talks,
the provisional government in Kiev had vowed not to negotiate with the
leaders of the masked gunmen, whom they refer to as “terrorists” and
“killers.” As a result there were no representatives of the separatist
factions, who are crucial to reaching an accord that might resolve the
crisis.
Mr.
Yefremov, in his opening remarks, said he expected more of a presence
from his region, and he complained that the talks had opened with sharp
words by a leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Filaret,
blaming Russia for the crisis.
“I
am surprised that nobody is here from Luhansk,” he said, “and I also
don’t understand why we start our dialogue with morality.” He added, “We
have people who think differently, who have different culture, and we
have a responsibility to create a state that corresponds to the needs of
our people.”
Sergei
A. Taruta, the billionaire governor of Donetsk, another embattled
eastern region, also attended the talks, which were held in the
Parliament building and featured two former presidents of Ukraine as
well as religious leaders. While the negotiations were billed as
round-table talks, the table itself was oblong in shape.
Mr.
Taruta warned that there was genuine opposition in the east, known
collectively as Donbass. “The majority of Donbass population is for
Ukraine’s unity, but at the same time against the current authorities in
Kiev,” he said.
The
acting prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, was among the first to
speak on Wednesday, and he reiterated a promise to fight graft and urged
unity. But he made no particular outreach to the besieged eastern
regions where separatist leaders on Sunday held referendums that they said showed broad public support for seceding from Ukraine.
“To fight corruption and provide people with jobs is our main task,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said. “And that will unite our country.”
The
overwhelming number of officials in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting
were strongly aligned with the central government in Kiev. They included
the former prime minister and now presidential candidate, Yulia V.
Tymoshenko, as well as the ambassadors to Ukraine of the United States
and the European Union.
The
Kiev government has been working to develop a decentralization plan
that would empower local officials by giving them additional budget
authority. It is an effort to answer demands in the east, supported by
Russia, for a new federalization program that would substantially weaken
the central government in favor of stronger regional governors.
Volodymyr
Groysman, the deputy prime minister leading the decentralization
effort, said: “I suggest to form an agenda. Let’s take some questions
that need clear answers.”
“I
see smiles on some faces,” Mr. Groysman added. “And I really hope that
these smiles on your faces express readiness to meet the challenges we
have today. Because nobody will give us a second chance. We will either
win back the trust of the people in the east and west, or we will suffer
a bad fate.”
One
official who does hold credibility in the east, the mayor of Donetsk,
Aleksandr A. Lukyanchenko, urged officials at the talks to pay attention
to the results of Sunday’s referendum.
While
he acknowledged that the referendum might not be regarded as
legitimate, he said it nonetheless demonstrated a genuine lack of faith
in the Kiev government.
Sergey
Tigipko, another presidential candidate and a former economics
minister, urged that future talks be held in eastern Ukraine so that
officials could get a better understanding of demands in the region.
“Today, we don’t understand what the east wants,” Mr. Tigipko said. “In
order to understand them, we need to talk about it there.”
As
the talks unfolded in Kiev on Wednesday, the president of the European
Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said two other former Soviet republics,
Georgia and Moldova, would sign agreements with the European Union on
June 27, tightening political and economic ties.
The
refusal by Ukraine’s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, to sign
similar agreements last fall — after long promising that he would do so —
set off the protests in Kiev that cascaded into months of unrest and
ultimately led to Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster.
Although
the talks in Kiev were clearly not headed to a quick settlement,
Russian officials continued to lend support to the idea of a negotiated
compromise.
“I
am deeply convinced that even though the crisis in Ukraine has gone
very far and the escalation of the conflict continues, there are still
reserves and resources to stop the crisis in order to decrease the
escalation of the conflict,” Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of the Duma,
the lower house of the Russian Parliament, said in an interview on
Rossiya 24 television. “The road to that lies through a dialogue only,
through a dialogue of all political powers inside Ukraine.”
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