German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday the standoff over Ukraine could be
solved but only if control was tightened over the Ukraine-Russia border across
which, the West alleges, Russia has been funnelling arms to help a separatist
rebellion.
Merkel
was visiting Kiev as a prelude to a meeting next week between the Russian and
Ukrainian leaders that diplomats say is the best chance in months of a peace
deal in eastern Ukraine, where government forces are fighting pro-Moscow
rebels.
But
she arrived as tensions flared up again. NATO has alleged
Russia's military is
active inside Ukraine helping the rebels, and Moscow angered Kiev and its
Western allies by sending an aid convoy into Ukraine against Kiev's wishes.
"There
must be two sides to be successful. You cannot achieve peace on your own. I
hope the talks with Russia will lead to success," said Merkel, looking
ahead to a meeting on Tuesday involving Russian President Vladimir Putin and
his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.
"The
plans are on the table...now actions must follow," the German leader told
a news conference after talks with Poroshenko in the Ukrainian capital.
She
said a ceasefire was needed, but the main obstacle was the lack of controls
along the nearly 2,000 km (1,300 mile) border. She proposed an agreement
between Kiev and Moscow on monitoring of the frontier by the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Poroshenko
suggested he saw scope for accord.
“The
Ukrainian side and our European partners will do everything possible to bring
about peace - but not at the price of sovereignty, territorial integrity and
the independence of Ukraine," he said.
Hours
before her plane landed in Kiev, there was heavy artillery bombardment in
Donetsk, the main separatist stronghold on the east of Ukraine, near the border
with Russia. Reuters reporters saw apartments destroyed and puddles of blood,
where, according to residents, two civilians were killed.
The
unusually intense shelling may be part of a drive by government forces to
achieve a breakthrough against the rebels in time for Ukrainian Independence
Day, which falls on Sunday.
Diplomats
say Merkel has two aims for the visit: primarily to show support for Kiev in
its stand-off with Russia, but also to urge Poroshenko to be open to peace
proposals when he meets Putin next week.
TRUCK
CONVOY
The
conflict in Ukraine has dragged Russian-Western relations to their lowest ebb
since the Cold War and sparked a round of trade sanctions that are hurting
already-fragile economies in European and Russia.
A
convoy of about 220 white-painted trucks rolled into Ukraine on Friday through
a border crossing controlled by the rebels after days waiting for clearance.
Moscow
said the trucks moved in without Kiev's consent because civilians in areas
under siege from Ukrainian government troops were in urgent need of food, water
and other supplies. Kiev called the convoy a direct invasion, a stance echoed
by NATO, the United States, and European leaders.
A
Reuters journalist at the Donetsk-Izvaryne border crossing, where the convoy
rolled into Ukraine on Friday, said trucks on Saturday had started pouring back
onto the Russian side of the border.
The
foreign ministry in Moscow said the convoy had now left Ukraine, though a
Ukrainian military spokesman disputed this, saying only 184 of the 220 vehicles
had re-entered Russia.
In
Brussels, NATO said it had reports of Russian troops engaging Kiev's forces
inside Ukraine - fuelling Western allegations that the Kremlin is behind the
conflict in an effort undermine the Western-leaning leadership in Kiev.
"Russian
artillery support – both cross border and from within Ukraine – is being
employed against the Ukrainian armed forces," said NATO spokeswoman Oana
Lungescu.
A
Ukrainian military spokesman in Kiev, Andriy Lysenko, said Ukrainian government
forces were now coming under cross-border fire from Russia, using Grad and
Uragan missiles, over a 400 kms (250 mile) length of the border.
The
Russian foreign ministry, in a statement, called those allegations
"groundless." Russia accuses Kiev, with the backing of the West, of
waging a war against innocent civilians in eastern Ukraine, a mainly
Russian-speaking region.
HOMES
DESTROYED
The
crisis over Ukraine started when mass protests in Kiev ousted a president who
was close to Moscow, and installed leaders viewed with suspicion by the
Kremlin.
Soon
after that, Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea, and a separatist
rebellion broke out in eastern Ukraine. In the past weeks, the momentum has
shifted towards Ukraine's forces, who have been pushing back the rebels.
The
separatists are now encircled in their two strongholds, Luhansk and Donetsk.
Reuters
reporters in Donetsk said that most of the shelling was taking place in the
outskirts, but explosions were also audible in the centre of the city.
In
Donetsk's Leninsky district, a man who gave his name as Grigory, said he was in
the toilet on Saturday morning when he heard the whistling sound of incoming
artillery. "Then it hit. I came out and half the building was gone."
The
roof of the building had collapsed into a heap of debris. Grigory said his
27-year-old daughter was taken to hospital with injuries to her head. He picked
up a picture of a baby from the rubble. "This is my grandson," he
said.
In
another residential area, about 5 km north of the city centre, a shop and
several houses had been hit. Residents said two men, civilians, were killed.
Reuters
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