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Ukraine leader, Putin talk; Merkel issues warning

German chancellor says she fears crisis will last long time

The Columbian
Published: November 28, 2014, 12:00am

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held his first talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in almost a month on the conflict in the country’s east, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled she’s ready for a long crisis.

The two leaders had “a constructive talk,” Iryna Friz, Poroshenko’s former spokeswoman, who is now a member of Ukraine’s new parliament, said Thursday. The presidents discussed the situation in southeast Ukraine, according to a statement on the Kremlin’s website. Poroshenko and Putin last spoke to each other on Oct. 31, according to the two presidential websites.

As government forces and pro-Russian separatists battle in eastern Ukraine, Merkel said that Germany’s goal is to keep the former Soviet republic sovereign and whole. Russia’s actions threaten “the peaceful international order and breach international law,” and the European Union needs unity to confront it, she said in a speech to parliament in Berlin on Wednesday.

“We need patience and staying power to overcome the crisis,” she said to applause from lower-house lawmakers. Economic sanctions on Russia “remain unavoidable” as a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine fails to hold, she said.

Merkel, who has emerged as Europe’s main conduit to Putin in the Ukraine crisis, used some of the strongest language yet to hint at her exasperation, as she retraced attempts by world leaders to reach out to the Russian president during a year of escalating conflict.

Germany was “sparing no effort” to try to reach a diplomatic solution, she said. The EU’s biggest economy has also taken into account Russian concerns about the impact of Ukraine’s free-trade deal with the bloc. Ukrainian former President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned a plan to sign the agreement, triggering the crisis that preceded Putin’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.

“None of this justifies or excuses Russia’s annexation of Crimea,” said Merkel, who held a four-hour discussion with Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Australia this month. “None of this justifies or excuses the direct or indirect participation in the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia is breaching Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”

Russia poses “no threat to anyone” and is intent on avoiding “geopolitical games, intrigues and especially conflicts, no matter how much someone would want to drag us in,” Putin said at a meeting with military commanders Wednesday in Sochi, Russia. “It’s necessary to reliably protect Russia’s sovereignty and integrity and the security of our allies.”

Ukraine’s parliament convened Thursday for its first session since Oct. 26 elections that were dominated by the crisis in the east.

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