The latest push for peace in Ukraine appeared moribund on Thursday after initial talks failed to agree when the warring sides should meet again to try ending their eight-month conflict.
Negotiations mediated by European and Russian envoys in the Belarussian capital Minsk broke up after more than five hours on Wednesday with the pro-Russian rebels reporting little to no progress.
That scuppered a plan for both sides to gather again on Friday in order to sign a comprehensive agreement reinforcing a September 5 truce deal that was followed by 1,300 more deaths.
The chief negotiator for eastern Ukraine`s self-declared Donetsk People`s Republic said he could not disclose the “difficult” talks` details because all sides preferred to keep their differences private.
But he stressed there was no guarantee that the contacts would resume any time soon.
“We had a difficult preliminary meeting,” Denis Pushilin told a pro-rebel news website.
“The date and time of the next meeting is still up in the air. It is under discussion,” Pushilin said.
The Belarussian foreign ministry added that “the date of the next meeting will be announced later”.
Neither Ukrainian officials nor the Russian and European envoys spoke to reporters waiting outside the gated Belarussian state mansion that hosted the negotiations.Sharply contrasting visions of Ukraine`s place in Europe and its system of government have been persistently blocking a solution to the protracted war.
The two Russian-border provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk rose up against the historic shift toward Europe that Kiev made in the wake of February`s ouster of an unpopular Moscow-backed president.
The separatist commanders have since declared their own republics and will settle for no less than Ukraine becoming a loose federation in which they manage most of their own affairs.
This option is backed firmly by Russia but rejected by Ukrainian nationalists who make up an important part of President Petro Poroshenko`s government.
Ukraine has remained tightly centralised since independence and is only now considering easing its hold over the country`s regions in order to stem public resentment over the relative prosperity enjoyed in Kiev.
Such problems undermined two deals reached in Minsk in September that Poroshenko was forced into after the rebels mounted a surprisingly effective counteroffensive. NATO believes the rebel campaign was backed by crack Russian forces and tanks, which were also seen by journalists on the ground.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denies the soldiers from his army who have crossed into Ukraine are there under orders, instead describing them as “volunteers” who are “answering the call of the heart”.
