Russian, Ukrainian leaders meet at Normandy event
OUISTREHAM, France (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday spoke face-to-face with Ukraine’s incoming president about ending the violence in the former Soviet state, a diplomatic turning point that played out along the Normandy beaches where the Allies battled for Europe’s peace 70 years earlier.
The meeting, which lasted some 15 minutes, came on the same day that Putin spoke with President Barack Obama, who had been keeping the Russian leader at arm’s length over the Ukrainian crisis that has rekindled Cold War-era tensions.
Speaking after the meeting with Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko — who is to be sworn for office on Saturday — Putin called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine ahead of any further talks, and said he expected Poroshenko to show “state wisdom” and “good will.” Putin also said that Moscow is ready for constructive discussion with Ukraine on settling its gas debt to Russia.
“I can only welcome Mr. Poroshenko’s position that the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine must be stopped immediately,” Putin told reporters in Normandy.
The Russian president said he liked Poroshenko’s approach, but added that he will be waiting for the Ukrainian leader to deliver it in detail to the nation.
“If it continues like that then conditions will be created for developing our relations in other areas as well,” he added.
French President Francois Hollande said Putin and Poroshenko also discussed how Russia could recognize the Ukrainian elections as well as measures to de-escalate the fighting in Ukraine’s east.
“It didn’t last a long time but long enough for the message to be passed on,” Hollande told the French network TF1.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Poroshenko also “confirmed that there is no alternative to settling the situation by peaceful political means.”
Frozen out of G-7 talks Thursday in Brussels, Putin appeared to be moving incrementally back into the fold of the West following his first direct talks with the man elected to lead Ukraine after the previous pro-Kremlin president was ousted.