Putin seeks talks on East Ukraine

MOSCOW, Sunday

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday raised the stakes in the Ukraine conflict by calling for the first time for statehood to be discussed for the restive east of the former Soviet state.

The remarks came just hours after the European Union gave Moscow — which the bloc accuses of direct involvement in the insurgency — a week to change course or face new sanctions.

“We need to immediately begin substantive talks... on questions of the political organisation of society and statehood in southeastern Ukraine,” the Russian leader was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

Moscow has previously only called for “federalisation” that would grant greater rights to the eastern regions of Ukraine, where predominantly Russian-speakers live.

SPARKED SPECULATION

But Mr Putin had long sparked speculation that he may be seeking to create a pro-Russian statelet when he began to employ the loaded Tsarist-era term “Novorossiya”, or New Russia, to refer to several regions in southeast Ukraine.

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today that the Russian leader was not talking about “Novorossiya’s” independence from Ukraine but “inclusive talks.”

“Only Ukraine can agree with Novorossiya,” he was quoted as saying. Mr Putin’s tough talk comes as rebels have begun to reject the concept of “federalisation” in recent weeks, calling for independence from Kiev, as they turned the tide on advancing Ukrainian troops by snatching a series of towns.

Kiev has warned that it was on the brink of “full-scale war” with Moscow which Europe fears would put the continent at risk of conflict. The EU agreed to take “further significant steps” if Moscow did not rein in its support for the rebels, with new sanctions to be drawn up within a week.

Kiev said the invigorated rebel push of the past days has included substantial numbers of Russian regular army contingents who are now concentrating forces in big towns across region.