Russia and Ukraine on Friday moved closer to resolving their six-month conflict, with American officials offering hope that the talks between the two sides at the Belarus border would bring both sides together to end the killing in eastern Ukraine.
The United States welcomed the announcement from both Moscow and Kiev, as well as Germany and France, that peace talks to put an end to a military conflict that has already claimed more than 6,000 lives would resume around 10 a.m. Belarus time on Friday.
The meeting was understood to have a broad scope, with each side to voice both their own views as well as offering conditions for any solution.
But at the very heart of the dispute is a demand by Kiev that Russia withdraw its military forces, estimated to number around 10,000 fighters, from the territory under insurgent control.
Another major hurdle facing the peace negotiators is the fate of streaky municipality of Donetsk, which falls under the authority of a pro-Russian separatist declared an independent entity last August.
The success of the peace discussions was undercut by Russian officials, who sought to put pressure on Kiev, claimed to have lost track of at least 50 servicemen involved in the evacuation of civilians from the epicenter of the conflict in the Donetsk municipality, in addition to around 30 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers that were found inside a makeshift hospital.
The claims from Russia were vigorously denied by Ukrainian security officials.
The outcome of the peace negotiations was viewed with a measure of skepticism by both Russia and Ukraine, as the conflict has been viewed from a traditional geopolitical perspective, with each side guided by a belief that any end to violence must be viewed through the lens of their own national interest.
In the meantime, while both sides agreed to a cease-fire over the New Year celebrations, it had proven more a fiction in the environment created by the one-dimensional war caused by the invasion by the Russian military into Ukrainian territory in April last year.
The American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and an escort flotilla were heading to the Atlantic Ocean’s Mediterranean Sea, but it was not immediately clear when they would enter.
The transports represented the crystallization of one of the largest airlifts in history, observers said, aimed at reinforcing around 2,000 American forces already in Cuba in what was viewed as a major show of support for Cuba’s fledging democracy.
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