German chancellor Angela Merkel will press US president Barack Obama today to postpone a decision on sending defensive arms to Ukraine pending a fresh diplomatic effort for a ceasefire on Wednesday in Minsk.
Mr Obama receives Dr Merkel in Washington amid growing divisions – both transatlantic and across Europe – on whether to offer military assistance to Kiev's battle with pro- Russian separatists in its eastern regions.
After Washington, the German leader will attend a four- way summit in the Belarussian capital with the presidents of Ukraine, Russia and France, agreed during a telephone conference yesterday. In Minsk the leaders will discuss revised ceasefire proposals for a conflict that has claimed more than 5,300 lives since last April.
After meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, Dr Merkel expressed "grave doubts" that the conflict could be resolved by boosting Kiev's military capacity.
‘Bitter truth’
“This cannot be won militarily, that is the bitter truth,” said Dr Merkel on Saturday at the Munich security conference. The German leader, fearing supplying arms to Kiev would hand Mr Putin a propaganda victory, instead supports sanctions and a fresh diplomatic push.
Last September’s Minsk agreement called for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, the withdrawal of foreign troops and greater autonomy for separatist regions but it has been widely breached. The new Minsk plan is understood to propose a wider buffer zone between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists and lay out a clear sequence of targets to be achieved.
Debate over the merits and dangers of boosting Kiev’s defence capacity dominated this year’s Munich security conference. President Obama has yet to make a final decision but Republican and Democrat senators visiting Munich demanded Kiev be supplied with anti-tank missiles, radar technology and armed troop transporters.
Last week Ashton Carter, the Pentagon official nominated by the White House to head the defence department told senators he would be likely to support such efforts.
Military solutions
US vice president
Joe Biden
said in Munich he shared Berlin’s doubts about military solutions to the conflict but backed Kiev’s right to defend itself.
With an eye on today's White House meeting, Republican senator John McCain castigated Dr Merkel's diplomatic endeavours with Moscow as "foolish" and compared then to the 1938 Munich agreement that allowed Nazi Germany annex the Sudetenland.
Mr McCain argues that supplying “defensive arms” would “increase the military cost” of Russia supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine. German and other European officials fear that such deliveries would hand Mr Putin a propaganda victory.
US secretary of state John Kerry, however, insisted there was “no split” over weapons for Ukraine, just “people trying to create one”.
Looking to Wednesday's Minsk meeting, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov spoke of "good grounds for optimism" while Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko expressed hope for a "swift and unconditional ceasefire".
Minister for foreign affairs Charlie Flanagan meets his EU counterparts today in Brussels to discuss EU-Africa relations, with Ukraine likely to get on the agenda.
Besides Ukraine, President Obama and Chancellor Merkel will discuss the TTIP free trade deal, the battle against Islamist extremism and new limits on data collection by US intelligence services, revealed in 2013 to eavesdrop on Dr Merkel’s mobile phone.
