World leaders cautiously welcome new Ukraine deal

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed the hope that the roadmap for peace in eastern Ukraine, agreed after marathon talks involving the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine in Minsk just hours earlier, would lead to an enduring end to the bloodshed.

A statement issued by UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban "urges the parties concerned to ensure that a genuine and lasting ceasefire will commence on 15 February as agreed, paving the way for a broader political settlement of the conflict, based on the Minsk accords."

Like the secretary-general, many other leaders expressed "hope" that the latest Minsk deal would be fully implemented by pro-Russia separatists and government troops fighting in eastern Ukraine. But with the previous ceasefires having been repeatedly breached, it was perhaps understandable that many leaders were skeptical about this deal's chance of success.

Sanctions staying put

US Secretary of State John Kerry issued a written statement on Thursday saying it was far too early for Washington to consider easing the sanctions it has imposed on Russia over its alleged support of the rebels.

"We will judge the commitment of Russia and the separatists by their actions, not their words," the statement said.

"As we have long said, the United States is prepared to consider rolling back sanctions on Russia when the Minsk agreements of September 2014, and now this agreement, are fully implemented," he added.

Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters in Brussels, where he was attending an EU summit, that the 28-member bloc would also not be considering lifting of its sanctions on Russia anytime soon.

"If this is a genuine ceasefire then that would be welcome, but what matters most of all is actions," Cameron said.

"I don't think today we will discuss sanctions," the bloc's foreign policy coordinator, Federica Mogherini, said prior to the start of the summit, adding that she expected the leaders to focus on how to "activate all possible EU means" to help support the ceasefire once it was in place.

'Glimmer of hope'

Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, who spearheaded the initiative that led to the Minsk deal, appeared skeptical, with Merkel describing it as a "glimmer of hope."

Hollande noted that "the next few hours will be decisive as it could go either way."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who followed Merkel and Putin from Minsk to Brussels to brief EU leaders on the accord, stressed that much work still needed to be done to bring peace to his country.

"It was a very difficult negotiation. And we expect a not easy implementation process," Poroshenko said. He added that it was difficult to trust the other side and that failure to comply with the agreement should trigger "further restrictive measures of the European Union and United States."

Even as the marathon talks were going on, the fighting continued, with a Ukrainian military spokesman saying 50 tanks, 40 missile systems and 40 armored vehicles had crossed into the country from Russia overnight, a claim Moscow rejected.

"The intensity of fighting is evidenced by a sharp increase in the number of people trying to leave front-line towns," the spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, told reporters in Kyiv prior to the announcement of the peace deal.

pfd/msh (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)