Russian President Vladimir Putin has held “constructive” talks with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on efforts to end the conflict in east Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman says.
Dmitry Peskov said Vladimir Putin, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel met for more than five hours.
Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande had brought to Moscow a peace proposal whose details have not been released.
Russia is accused of arming pro-Russian separatists – a claim it denies.
The Kremlin also rejects claims by Ukraine and the West that its regular troops are fighting alongside the rebels in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Clashes have left nearly 5,400 people dead since April 2014, the UN says.
A September ceasefire, signed in Minsk in Belarus, has failed to stop the violence. Since then the rebels have seized more ground, raising alarm in Kiev and among Ukraine’s backers.
Photo Reuters
The peace proposal Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande took to Moscow on February 6 was crafted with the Ukrainian government the day before.
After the two leaders’ discussions with Vladimir Putin, French officials told AFP they had been “constructive and substantial”.
Dmitry Peskov said work was continuing on a joint document. Further talks will be held by phone on February 7, he added.
Earlier, Francois Hollande said the aim was not just a ceasefire but a “comprehensive agreement” – although Angela Merkel said it was “totally open” whether that could be achieved.
Major questions any plan would have to address include the route of any new ceasefire line – given the rebel advances of recent weeks – how to enforce it, and the future status of the conflict zone.
Moscow is still denying any direct role in the conflict, while Kiev insists above all that Ukraine must remain united, our correspondent says.
Washington is considering Ukrainian pleas for better weaponry to fend off the rebels, raising European fears of an escalation in the conflict and spurring the latest peace bid.
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French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are meeting Russia’s Vladimir Putin to try to end escalating fighting in Ukraine.
Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande are taking to Moscow a peace proposal crafted in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on February 5, but details have not been released.
Meanwhile a truce has allowed civilians to leave Debaltseve, at the heart of the latest fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Russia is accused of arming pro-Russian separatists – a claim it denies.
The Kremlin also rejects claims by Ukraine and the West that its regular troops are fighting alongside the rebels in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Clashes have left nearly 5,400 people dead since April 2014, the UN says.
A September ceasefire, signed in Minsk, Belarus, has failed to stop the violence. Since then the rebels have seized more ground, raising alarm in Kiev and among Ukraine’s backers.
Before he left for Moscow on February 6, Francois Hollande said the goal of his visit was not just a ceasefire, but a “comprehensive agreement” – though Angela Merkel said it was “totally open” whether that could be achieved.
Meanwhile Vice-President Joe Biden accused Russia of “continuing to escalate the conflict” and “ignoring every agreement”.
Joe Biden was speaking in Brussels, where he is meeting top EU officials.
He accused Vladimir Putin of continuing “to call for new peace plans as his tanks roll through the Ukrainian countryside”.
He said Russia could “not be allowed to redraw the map of Europe”.
Ukraine is also set to dominate an annual multi-lateral security conference in Munich.
The fighting has intensified in recent weeks after a rebel offensive, and a temporary truce was declared in Debaltseve on February 6, where Ukrainian forces are fighting to hold the town against surrounding rebels.
Convoys of buses travelled to the town on Friday to evacuate civilians who had been forced to shelter underground from the bombing.
They were escorted by monitors from the OSCE security watchdog, Reuters reported.
Washington is considering Ukrainian pleas for better weaponry to fend off the rebels, raising European fears of an escalation in the conflict and spurring the latest peace bid.
On February5, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel examined the peace proposal with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, without releasing any details.
Moscow says it is ready for “constructive dialogue” – though still denying any direct role in the conflict – while Kiev insists above all that Ukraine must remain united.
A spokesman for the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin would discuss “the fastest possible end to the civil war in south-eastern Ukraine”.
Some 1.2 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since April 2014, when the rebels seized a big swathe of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
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Israel has started to free a group of Palestinian prisoners, whose release was agreed as part of the deal that allowed peace talks to resume.
A group of 26 prisoners, all convicted of attacks that happened before 1993, were driven out of a jail in minibuses with tinted windows.
Some are being taken straight to Gaza, others are going to the West Bank.
Israelis outraged over Palestinian prisoner release
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began direct talks two weeks ago for the first time in three years.
Another round of talks is due to begin in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Israel agreed to release the 26 long-term prisoners as the first of 104 Palestinian and Israeli Arab inmates to be freed over the next few months.
Relatives and friends of the freed prisoners have gathered on the frontier with Gaza.
The inmates were named by Israel’s prison service shortly after midnight on Sunday, giving victims’ families 48 hours to submit legal challenges to the High Court.
Earlier on Tuesday, the court rejected an appeal by a victims’ rights group that objected to the release of all of the prisoners.
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Left-wing FARC rebels and the Colombian government have agreed on land reform, after more than six months of peace talks.
“This agreement will be the start of a radical transformation of rural Colombia,” read a joint statement.
The deal calls for the economic and social development of rural areas and providing land to poor farmers.
Land reform is one of the most contentious issues in the talks on ending five decades of conflict.
“Today we have a real opportunity to attain peace through dialogue,” said the Colombian government’s chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle.
“To support this process is to believe in Colombia,” he told journalists at the talks in the Cuban capital, Havana.
The FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, has been in talks with the government on the Caribbean island since last November.
FARC chief negotiator Ivan Marquez said several issues remained unresolved and would be dealt with in later discussions.
“We have advanced in the construction of an accord that will necessarily be checked over before the completion of the final agreement.”
The talks in Cuba are the fourth attempt to reach a negotiated settlement of the conflict, the longest-running in Latin America.
Sunday’s agreement calls for fair access to land, and rural development – two key causes of the armed conflict.
Left-wing FARC rebels and the Colombian government have agreed on land reform, after more than six months of peace talks
It also calls for the creation of a land bank, as a way to reallocate land, including areas seized illegally during the fighting.
Analysts and aid groups say much of it was taken by far-right paramilitary groups on behalf of cattle ranchers and drug traffickers.
The Colombian government, however, blames at least a third of the seizures on the FARC – a claim the rebels deny.
The agreement marks a significant step forward in the peace process.
Peace talks will resume on June 11 on the second major issue – the rebels’ participation in politics.
After Sunday’s agreement was announced, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter: “We celebrate, really, this fundamental step in Havana… to end half a century of conflict.
“We will continue the (peace) process with care and responsibility.”
Juan Manuel Santos previously said he wanted the talks to end this year.
But both parties have stressed that nothing is finalized until a complete peace accord is reached.
The FARC originally set out to overthrow the government and install a Marxist regime, but in recent years the rebels have become increasingly involved in the drug trade to finance their campaign.
According to the UN, Colombia is the top producer of coca leaf, the raw material for making cocaine.
Much of the illicit d**g goes to the US, and the Andean country has been for more than a decade a major recipient of US counter-narcotics aid through the so-called Plan Colombia.
On Monday, US Vice President Joe Biden is expected to meet Juan Manuel Santos as part of an official visit to Bogota that is centred on drugs, security and trade.
“It is an encouraging development that these negotiations will lead to the end of the conflict in Colombia,” said US Ambassador to Colombia, Michael McKinley, ahead of Joe Biden’s visit.
It is difficult to find reliable statistics on how many people died from the violence in Colombia.
The government estimates that 600,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in the 1960s, with some three million more internally displaced by the fighting.
The FARC is thought to have some 8,000 fighters, down from about 16,000 in 2001.
Six points on Colombia’s government and FARC peace agenda:
- Land reform
- Political participation
- Disarmament
- Illicit d**gs
- Rights of the victims
- Peace deal implementation
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