Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande being led into ‘trap’ in Russia peace talks, Ukraine says

Ukraine’s prime minister warned Thursday that the leaders of France and Germany were being led into a diplomatic “trap” as they headed to Moscow to push a peace plan for eastern Ukraine, as the Obama administration continued to struggle with the question of whether to provide U.S. weapons to aid the Ukrainian military’s fight against Russia-backed separatists.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry was not involved in plans for the Moscow visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, but said he supported their effort. The trip and the peace offering appeared designed to delay a U.S. decision to give Ukraine weapons, which many in Europe fear could spark a broader confrontation with Russia.

Russian officials said they would welcome the arrival of Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Hollande on Friday. An aide to President Vladimir Putin said the visit would be “constructive.”

U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s top commander, said Moscow continues to provide heavy weapons, air defenses and Russian troops to support separatists in eastern Ukraine.

NATO defense ministers meeting separately in Brussels announced Thursday the creation of a quick-reaction ground force.

Some 5,000 troops could be deployed within 48 hours “to defend all allies against any threat” from Russia in the east and terrorist groups to the south, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

Mr. Kerry leveled harsh rhetoric toward Moscow but asserted that he and others in the Obama administration wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine. “We have no illusions that there is a military solution” to the war, the secretary of state said during a visit to Kiev.

Mr. Kerry invoked former President Ronald Reagan when asked whether he believed the West could engage in honest negotiations with Russian leaders, who fiercely deny providing military support to separatists in eastern Ukraine.

“For years we negotiated with the former Soviet Union,” he said. “Ronald Reagan negotiated and came to agreements on arms — agreements where the key was verification, being able to know what you’re doing, what is required of each party — and that is what we will try to negotiate here.”

Broken cease-fire

The diplomacy reached high tempo amid resurgent fighting that killed eight more people in eastern Ukraine on Thursday and fueled fears that the conflict is threatening Europe’s overall security. Fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces surged in January, sending the death toll to over 5,300 since the conflict began in April.

The surge in violence has signaled the collapse of a peace process that culminated with the Minsk Protocol, a cease-fire agreement reached in September between Ukraine’s military and pro-Russia separatists in the east.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials blame Russia for the cease-fire’s demise. They say Moscow-backed forces have violated the agreement repeatedly by pushing deeper into eastern Ukraine with the goal of eventually establishing a land bridge to Russia’s mainland to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine last year.

With prospects for such a development looming, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk expressed wariness Thursday about a Franco-German negotiation with Moscow.

“Look, we have the deal, or we had a deal, in Minsk and there are fingerprints of President Putin on this deal,” he said. “So the thing is, to have a new deal, [while] not executing the previous one, seems to me being a trap.”

Mr. Yatsenyuk, who made the comments at a press conference with Mr. Kerry, said he does “support concerted actions of France, Germany, EU and the [U.S.] in resolving this conflict and in stopping Russian aggression,” but the goal should be for “Russia to implement and execute what was agreed, signed and authorized” under the cease-fire.”

He also said Ukraine will not consider any peace plan that casts doubt on the nation’s territorial integrity, an assertion that could complicate whatever proposal Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Hollande take to Moscow.

Few details were available on what was in the Merkel-Hollande proposal. Meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Thursday, the two leaders insisted that the peace deal would be “based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

“It will not be said that France and Germany together have not tried everything, undertaken everything, to preserve the peace,” Mr. Hollande said.

For a peace plan to gain steam, Kiev may have to have to accept that the separatists now control hundreds of square miles more than was agreed under the Minsk Protocol.

The Reuters news agency cited German government sources Thursday as saying the key problem for resuming the peace process is that the front line in eastern Ukraine no longer reflects what was discussed in Minsk, Belarus.

Mr. Yatsenyuk said U.S. military hardware may be needed “not for the offensive operation,” but for “the defensive operation.”

“God knows what is the ultimate goal of Russia and President Putin,” he said. “Russian aggression is a threat to the global order, to the European security, and is a threat to NATO member states.”