KYIV —
Ukraine and
Russia both called Sunday for intensified diplomatic efforts to
avert all-out war, but blamed each other for a sharp escalation in shelling on
the frontline separating Kyiv’s forces from Moscow-backed separatists.
اضافة اعلان
After separate calls with France’s President
Emmanuel Macron, both Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr
Zelensky pressed for more talks.
Washington is warning a Russian invasion of Ukraine
is imminent, and Macron’s office had dubbed the calls “the last possible and
necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict in Ukraine”.
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken said Russia
remained “on the brink” of invading Ukraine, but promised that President Joe
Biden was ready to talk to Putin and that Washington would seek a diplomatic
solution until Russian “tanks are actually rolling”.
During his 105-minute discussion with Macron, Putin
said “the cause of the escalation is provocations carried out by the Ukrainian
security forces”, according to a
Kremlin statement.
Putin repeated a call for “the US and
NATO to take
Russian demands for security guarantees seriously”.
But he added that the two leaders “believe it is
important to intensify efforts to find solutions through diplomatic means”.
Macron’s office also said the two had agreed on “the
need to favor a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything
to achieve one”, adding that both countries’ foreign ministers would meet “in
the coming days”.
Macon,
Biden, German leader
Olaf Scholz, and other
allied leaders were to hold calls later Sunday, the Elysee said.
Moscow has demanded that the NATO alliance
permanently rule out Ukraine’s bid for membership and the withdrawal of Western
forces deployed in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.
Zelensky called for an immediate ceasefire and the
resumption of talks under the Trilateral Contact Group of Russia, Ukraine and
the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
“We stand for intensifying the peace process,” he
tweeted, adding that he had informed Macron about “new provocative shelling” on
the frontline between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels.
Following the call, the OSCE said it would hold an
extraordinary meeting on Monday to seek ways to de-escalate the situation.
Earlier, fears of escalation mounted after
Belarus announced that Russian forces would remain on its soil after Sunday’s scheduled
end to joint drills.
Moscow had previously said the 30,000 troops it has
in Belarus were carrying out readiness drills with its ally, to be finished by
Sunday, allowing the Russians to head back to their bases.
But the Belarus defense ministry said Putin and
Belarus leader
Alexander Lukashenko had decided to “continue inspections”,
citing increased military activity on their shared borders and an alleged
“escalation” in east Ukraine.
The French presidency nevertheless said Putin had
once again told Macron that the Russian troops would eventually leave.
The extended drills will be seen as a further
tightening of the screws on Ukraine, already facing increased shelling from
Russian-backed separatist rebels and a force of what Western capitals says is
more than 150,000 Russian personnel on its borders.
More bombardments were heard by AFP reporters
overnight close to the frontline between government forces and the
Moscow-backed rebels who hold parts of the districts of
Lugansk and Donetsk.
In Zolote, a frontline village in the Lugansk
region, an AFP reporter found residents hiding from the shelling in a shelter
under a housing block, an earth-floored cellar roughly furnished when the
separatist conflict erupted in 2014.
“These weeks they started shelling harder. Now they
are shelling again. This shelter, of course, is not equipped, but it saved
people in 2014. There is no water here, people bring it with them,” said
33-year-old handyman Oleksiy Kovalenko.
Natalya Zibrova,
a 48-year-old teacher, remained in her flat with her daughters, despite the
shelling.
“We are all people. We all want to live normally. I want to
get up in the morning and think about how I will spend the day. And not to
think about whether I and my children will have time to escape,” she said, as
shellfire rang out.
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