Foreign ministers gather in Berlin to seek Ukraine progress

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BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's foreign minister is hosting his counterparts from Russia, Ukraine and France in an attempt to move forward efforts to calm the Ukrainian crisis and perhaps clear the way for a summit of the countries' leaders.

The meeting planned Monday evening in Berlin follows a flurry of diplomacy including a brief weekend encounter in Paris between the German, French and Ukrainian leaders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also has spoken by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and met the president of Kazakhstan, the possible host of a four-way summit on Ukraine.

Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier are pushing for progress on implementing a much-violated peace deal that was drawn up in Minsk in September. Berlin says a substantial narrowing of differences is needed for a summit to take place.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_UKRAINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-12-04-57-16

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1. News Analysis: Bombing Campaign Opens New Front In Battle For Ukraine

Hardly a day goes by in Ukraine these days without headlines about some terrorist incident or about the country's security forces breaking up a would-be plot or capturing a cache of weapons or explosives.

In recent weeks there have been dozens of small bombings across the country, with the epicenters being Kharkiv, Odesa, Mariupol, and Kyiv. There were at least six bombings in Odesa in December alone.

Most of the attacks have targeted the offices of pro-Kyiv organizations during nighttime hours, while a few have targeted infrastructure, the security forces, or Ukrainian politicians.

In the worst incident, 11 people were injured on November 9 when a bomb went off in a bar in downtown Kharkiv.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-bombing-campaign-odesa-kharkiv-mariupol-kyiv/26783218.html

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2. Berlin Receives Moscow's Note on Ukraine's PM Soviet Invasion Remarks

BERLIN, January 12 (Sputnik) — The German Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that it had received a note verbale from the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s much-publicized World War II statements. Yatsenyuk made those remarks during his official visit to Berlin.

“I can confirm that the ministry received a note verbale on Friday from the Russian ministry. We knew in advance that this note would come and were prepared for it, because we learned about this from news agencies,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schäfer told reporters.

During his official visit to Berlin last week, Yatsenyuk lashed out against alleged Russian aggression in Ukraine and stated that Kiev "remembers the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany,” causing strong negative reactions from both Russian and many Ukrainian officials.

A note verbale, sometimes referred to as a third-person note, is often used in diplomatic channels as a less formal text-based negotiating tool.

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150112/1016794786.html

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3. Kiev Has Unilaterally Scrapped Ceasefire Regime: Donetsk Leader

DONETSK, January 12 (Sputnik) – Kiev’s actions have shown it has unilaterally called off the ceasefire regime with the self-proclaimed eastern Ukrainian Donetsk People’s Republic, the republic’s leader said Monday.

“Donetsk has returned to the same time before there was a ceasefire called. Ukraine has shown with its actions that it has unilaterally scrapped the ceasefire regime,” Alexander Zakharchenko said.

© AP Photo/ Dmitry Lovetsky
OSCE Reports Increase in Ceasefire Violations, Casualties in East Ukraine
Kiev authorities and the independence supporters of Ukraine's eastern regions have been embroiled in an armed conflict since April, when the former launched an offensive to suppress a growing independence movement in the country's east.

In September, the warring sides managed to agree to a ceasefire in Minsk with the mediation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Russia. However, the opposing parties have continued to accuse each other of violating the truce.

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150112/1016787689.html

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4. European commission proposes Kyiv not be in hurry to hold donor conference

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/european-commission-proposes-that-kyiv-should-not-be-in-hurry-to-hold-donor-conference-2-377165.html

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5. Ukraine's loss after purchase of coal from South Africa exceeds Hr 846 million, says PGO Print versi

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraines-loss-after-purchase-of-coal-from-south-africa-exceeds-hr-846-million-says-pgo-377166.html

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6. Europe at War

NEW YORK – By invading Ukraine in 2014, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia has posed a fundamental challenge to the values and principles on which the European Union was founded, and to the rules-based system that has kept the peace in Europe since 1945. Neither Europe’s leaders nor its citizens are fully aware of the scope of this challenge, much less how to deal with it.

Putin’s regime is based on rule by force, manifested in repression at home and aggression abroad. But it has been able to gain a tactical advantage, at least in the short term, over the EU and the United States, which are determined to avoid direct military confrontation.

Violating its treaty obligations, Russia annexed Crimea and established separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. When it appeared last summer that the Ukrainian government might win the war in Donbas, Putin ordered an invasion by regular Russian armed forces. Preparations for a second wave of military action began in November, when Putin provided separatists with a new influx of armored columns and personnel.

The West, sadly, has provided embattled Ukraine with only a façade of support. Equally disturbing has been the continuing reluctance of international leaders to provide new financial commitments to Ukraine, despite growing pressure on its foreign-currency reserves and the specter of a full-blown financial meltdown. As a result, the mere threat of military action may be sufficient to bring about Ukraine’s economic collapse.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/european-leadership-in-supporting-ukraine-by-george-soros-2015-01

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7. Viktor Yanukovych put on Interpol wanted list

Baku - APA. The International Criminal Police Organization, Interpol, said on Monday it had put Ukraine's ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and his son Alexander on wanted list, APA reports quoting TASS.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook that Yanukovych, his son Alexander, former Ukrainian premier Nikolai Azarov, former healthcare minister Raisa Bogatyreva and ex-finance minister Yuri Kolobov, former chairman of Ukrtelecom Georgii Dzekon are wanted by Interpol.

In December 2014, Ukraine’s Chief Prosecutor Vitaly Yaryoma announced his request to place Viktor Yanukovich in the international wanted list. Yanukovych is accused of firing on demonstrators during Maidan movement and causing their death, corruption and other illegal acts.

http://en.apa.az/-_221554.html

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8. . nt

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9. Western partners try to link counter-terrorism cooperation to Ukraine crisis — Lavrov

MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Moscow has sensed the West’s desire to change the situation with the lack of dialogue on counter-terrorism in connection with the Ukrainian crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday

“I wouldn’t link these two things (cooperation on counter-terrorism and the crisis in Ukraine),” Lavrov said. “Our Western partners are trying to make this connection saying ‘You should behave well on Ukraine and we will resume cooperation in other areas’.”

“It sounds childish,” he said, noting the need to understand common priorities and challenges. “The major threat facing everyone now is terrorism, fuelled by drug trafficking and organized crime.”

“There is a growing understanding that this common threat must not be allowed to broaden and deepen,” Lavrov said. “I felt this yesterday during numerous talks as I took part in events of the ‘republican march’ in Paris,” he said, referring to his and many world leaders' participation in Sunday’s huge march in the French capital in support of unity and the victims of last week's attacks, in which 17 people were killed.

http://itar-tass.com/en/russia/770787

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10. West has forgotten MH17 Ukraine crash probe – Lavrov

The West appears to have forgotten about investigating the tragedy of the Malaysian plane that was shot down in eastern Ukraine in July, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, adding that Moscow wants at least some preliminary results published.

“The West imposed sanctions [on Russia] under the pretext of the catastrophe of the Malaysian Boeing,” said Lavrov, after a meeting with his Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics.

And now our Western colleagues “have completely forgotten this problem,” the Russian foreign minister added.

“Russia alone is saying that it would be good to release at least preliminary results of the investigation and explain why this probe was conducted with flagrant violations of the norms, which are applied specifically for such cases within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”

http://rt.com/news/221759-lavrov-ukraine-plane-crash/

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11. A New Sino-Russian Alliance?

CAMBRIDGE – Some analysts believe that 2014 ushered in a new era of Cold War-style geopolitics. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea was met with heavy economic sanctions from Europe and the United States, weakening Russia’s ties with the West and leaving the Kremlin eager to strengthen ties with China. The question is whether Russia will manage to build a real alliance with the People’s Republic.

At first glance, it seems plausible. Indeed, traditional balance-of-power theory suggests that US primacy in power resources should be offset by a Sino-Russian partnership.

Perhaps more convincing, there seems to be historical precedent for such a partnership. In the 1950s, China and the Soviet Union were allied against the US. After US President Richard Nixon’s opening to China in l972, the balance shifted, with the US and China cooperating to limit what they viewed as a dangerous rise in the Soviet Union’s power.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, that de facto US-China alliance ended, and a China-Russia rapprochement began. In 1992, the two countries declared that they were pursuing a “constructive partnership”; in 1996, they progressed toward a “strategic partnership”; and in 2001, they signed a treaty of “friendship and cooperation.”

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/russia-china-alliance-by-joseph-s--nye-2015-01

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12. Ukraine peace summit scratched after diplomacy fails to break impasse

The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine failed to make progress at a meeting in Berlin on Monday night with their counterparts from France and Germany, prompting cancellation of a four-party peace summit that had been planned for Thursday in Kazakhstan.

As fighting has flared anew in eastern Ukraine after a brief lull over the holidays and European diplomats have been distracted by recent terrorist strikes, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned over the weekend that the two sides in the Ukraine conflict needed to demonstrate their willingness to resolve their differences through negotiation.

But at a Monday night gathering in Berlin at the invitation of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his counterparts from Russia and Ukraine failed to make sufficient progress to justify the four countries' leaders traveling to Astana, Kazakhstan, for a summit with little prospect of success.

"Hopes have collapsed for a crisis summit in the Ukraine conflict in the Kazakh city of Astana," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung of Munich reported. It cited a statement by the four foreign ministers that they were unable to get the Ukrainian and Russian officials to commit to the conditions of a Sept. 5 cease-fire.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-peace-summit-scratched-20150112-story.html#navtype=outfit

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13. Opinion: bitter lesson in the Ukraine conflict

Berlin and Paris tried in vain: The summit on the Ukraine conflict that was to take place in Astana on Thursday will not be happening. Ukraine and Russia are not willing to compromise, says DW’s Bernd Johann.

http://www.dw.de/opinion-bitter-lesson-in-the-ukraine-conflict/a-18188143?maca=en-rss-en-eu-2092-rdf

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14. EU Considers Improved Russia Ties -- Update

BRUSSELS--The European Union could significantly scale back sanctions and resume discussions with Russia on issues from visa-free travel, cooperation with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union and the crisis in Libya, Syria and Iraq if Russia moves to end the crisis in eastern Ukraine, according to an EU discussion paper.

While insisting the EU cannot return to "business as usual" with Moscow, the paper suggests the EU consider gradually normalizing many aspects of its ties with Russia in what would be a significant shift in relations.

It says that would depend on Moscow fully implementing the peace and cease-fire deals it signed with Ukraine, standing by its gas-supply agreement with Ukraine and throwing no fresh wrenches in the way of the EU-Ukraine trade and political pact.

The paper, which hasn't yet been sent to member states, was prepared by the EU's foreign-policy arm ahead of a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. No immediate decisions are expected from that meeting where the EU's medium-term approach to Russia is the main item on the agenda. EU energy chief Maros Sefcovic will visit Moscow on Wednesday for discussions with top officials from the government and the state gas company Gazprom.''

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/eu-considers-improved-russia-ties--update-20150113-00621

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15. Pro-Russian Forces About To Take Donetsk Airport As Ukraine Peace Talks Called Off

The air traffic control tower at Donetsk Airport has been destroyed by pro-Russian forces surging from two sides against a depleted Ukrainian military. Separatist forces had offered a 5 p.m., local time, deadline (10 a.m. EST) for the government's soldiers to vacate the airport, but Ukrainian artillery reinforcements have slowed the attack, according to the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency.

The Donetsk airport has been the focal point of continued fighting in Ukraine despite a ceasefire signed in September. A meeting between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine was due to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday, but in the early hours of Tuesday morning all sides called off the meeting, citing a lack of progress.

According to Liga, a Ukrainian news website, separatist forces were within 400 meters when the control tower fell. However, it’s yet to be seen whether additional artillery support will be enough to stop the airport falling into pro-Russian hands -- a development that would give an important tactical advantage to the separatist forces battling the Ukrainian government's troops.

“If we do not leave, the terrorists [pro-Russian separatists] will simply destroy us," a soldier told Liga. "The shelling is sweeping through the terminal. But we’re not going anywhere.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/pro-russian-forces-about-take-donetsk-airport-ukraine-peace-talks-called-1782026