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Ukraine Separatists: Ready for Cease-Fire

by VOA News August 09, 2014

Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine say they are ready for a cease-fire with the government, amid growing gains by Ukrainian forces against the rebels.

There were no immediate reports of a government response to the statement, but Ukrainian officials have previously said they would agree to a cease-fire if the rebels surrender their weapons.

The Ukrainian military is continuing to squeeze separatist forces in their remaining strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Conditions in Donetsk have been deteriorating, raising concerns of a humanitarian crisis in the city.

A U.S. State Department official says Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by telephone Saturday to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The official says Kerry made it clear that the best way to get humanitarian aid into Ukraine is through international organizations that are already on the ground. Kerry told Lavrov that Russia should not intervene in Ukraine under the pretext of peacekeeping or humanitarian convoys.

Valeriy Chalyi, deputy head of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's administration, said Saturday that Russian forces had wanted to enter Ukraine under the guise of a humanitarian mission, but Ukraine blocked the move. Russian officials deny the claim.

The United States has stressed that any unilateral attempt by Russia to deliver humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine will be viewed as an 'invasion.'

The White House says President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed by phone Saturday that 'any Russian intervention in Ukraine,' without the formal consent of the Ukrainian government, 'violates international law and will provoke additional consequences.'

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told a Security Council meeting on Ukraine Friday that while Russia has proposed creating humanitarian corridors to send aid to civilians in the war-torn region, such aid should be delivered by international organizations.

Both U.S. and NATO officials said Moscow had recently increased the number of its troops along the Ukrainian border to around 20,000.

Power also said Friday that Russian cross-border military assistance to separatists in eastern Ukraine has increased substantially in recent weeks, and that new separatist fighters are being trained on Russian soil.