[Extract from a New York Times article]
Munich – 08 Feb 2015 – US Secretary of State, John Kerry and the German and French foreign ministers here have also been busy trying to see if a new arrangement can be negotiated to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine without conceding too much autonomy to areas occupied by Ukrainian separatists and Russian soldiers.
On Sunday, Germany announced that the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aim to meet in Minsk on Wednesday to continue work on resolving the Ukraine crisis. Diplomats will gather in Berlin on Tuesday to try to arrange the summit, the German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. Mr. Kerry issued a statement of support for the European efforts and noted that Washington is concerned by new reports of “fierce fighting today in Debaltseve and Mariupol, and press references to new Russian convoys into eastern Ukraine.”
Debates over Ukraine dominated the Munich Security Conference, with sharp splits emerging between Germany and prominent American politicians like Senator John McCain over the wisdom of supplying defensive arms to Ukraine to raise the cost to Russia of its military interventions in eastern Ukraine. Moscow continues to deny the involvement of its military. But one of the main prompts for Germany and France to try to work out a new arrangement in eastern Ukraine has been a serious discussion in Washington about providing lethal, if defensive, military equipment to Kiev, something that both the German and French leaders have opposed.
Mr. McCain said the European opposition missed the intimate connection between military pressure and successful diplomacy. Asking if Ukraine could ever defeat Russia is the wrong question, he said. “The right question is: If we help Ukrainians increase the military cost to the Russian forces that have invaded their country, how long can Putin sustain a war that he tells his people is not happening? That is why we must provide defensive arms to Ukraine.” He said that in his view, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin does not want a diplomatic solution, but “he wants to dominate Ukraine” as a “prelude to further aggression.”
Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said that if the Russian goal is special status and a form of political autonomy for the east within a constitutional, sovereign Ukraine; that could be acceptable. “But if the real objective is different, to have a grasp on Ukraine or at least on eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian foreign policy,” he said, then that would be unacceptable for Europe.