Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Putin makes nice on Ukraine at EU-Russia mini-summit

  • Putin came to the breakfast meeting after a night with Berlusconi (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

Russian leader Vladimir Putin told EU leaders he wants pro-Russia rebels to make peace with Ukraine at a meeting in Milan on Friday (17 October).

Coming out of the talks, British PM David Cameron noted: “Putin said very clearly that he doesn't want a frozen conflict, he doesn't want a divided Ukraine … if that is the case, Russia has to take actions to put in place all that has been agreed”.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy added: “President Putin made very clear he doesn’t want another Transniestria [a frozen conflict in Moldova] and that the Donbas region [the conflict zone in east Ukraine] is an integral part of Ukraine”.

Like Cameron, he alluded to the fact that Putin has broken promises before.

“To this effect it is essential that we ensure implementation of the Minsk agreements [a Russia-Ukraine peace deal in September] … The keyword was implementation, implementation, implementation”, Van Rompuy said.

German chancellor Angela Merkel was also sceptical.

"We are closer together on some questions of detail, but the central point is whether the territorial integrity of Ukraine is really respected," she noted.

Friday morning’s two-hour meeting of British, EU, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Ukrainian leaders took place in the margins of an EU-Asia summit in Italy.

The wobbly “ceasefire” in Ukraine has in the past six weeks seen more than 300 killed in fighting in Donbas.

Russian troops are still on Ukrainian territory and still massed on the Russia-Ukraine border, according to Nato, ever since Putin began biting off chunks of his neighbour after a pro-Western revolution in February.

For his part, French president Hollande noted that France, Germany, and Italy are ready to supply drones to the OSCE, a European multilateral body, to monitor Russian compliance with the Minsk deal.

He added that EU sanctions on Russia have hurt both sides’ economies and that the Ukraine conflict has created “doubt seen on the [international financial] markets”.

Italy’s Matteo Renzi aso indicated he wants to end the stand-off.

“We hope very much for the possibility to involve Russia in the international situation … the role of Russia could be very important in a lot of fields: [the fight against] Ebola; Isis in Iraq and Syria; Libya; and other crises”.

The two protagonists - Putin and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko - disagreed on the outcome of the talks, however.

Putin said in a Kremlin statement: “The two leaders continued to express serious differences in views on the source of Ukraine’s domestic conflict, as well as root causes for what is happening there today”.

He later told press they agreed a deal on winter gas, amid a price dispute which threatens to interrupt EU transit supplies.

But he referred to east Ukraine as “Novorossiya”, a term implying Russian territorial claims.

Poroshenko said talks on how to finance gas purchases are still ongoing: “We have a certain moderate progress in the gas issue. We have agreed on main parameters of the agreement".

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso noted there might be a deal at EU-Russia-Ukraine gas talks in Brussels on Tuesday.

He added the EU is prepared to inject more money, which can be used to pay for Russian gas, because Ukraine “has delivered on reforms”.

The EU-Asia summit brought together more than 50 leaders to discuss the global economy and climate change.

Barroso said the informal EU-Russia summit “was not overshadowing the event, it was adding”.

But Putin’s personal behaviour diverted attention from the big issues.

Media reports say he was with Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, a convicted tax fraud, until almost 4am local time on Friday before attending the 8am EU talks.

But Italy’s Renzi said the breakfast meeting had, in any case, a businesslike atmosphere.

“It was a breakfast without breakfast, nobody drank Italian coffee, nobody left their chair to share the milk, or tea, or coffee”, he noted.

Russian gas less mighty than it looks, EU says

A Russian gas cut-off would have a “substantial impact”, but even the most vulnerable countries - Bulgaria, Estonia, and Finland - could get through the winter.

Ukraine wary of EU's Russia gas deal

The EU is keen for Ukraine to accept a winter deal on Russian gas, but Ukraine is wary of the terms and of broader EU-Russia energy ties.

EU to uphold Russia sanctions

EU states decided to uphold sanctions on Russia and to better co-ordinate their response to the Ebola crisis at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

Opinion

Ukraine needs reform to survive

The focus in Ukraine is shifting back from war or peace to the country’s internal malaise - the time has come for real reforms.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us