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Dieter Nagl / AFP / Getty Images
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that any new round of international talks in Geneva on Ukraine should include pro-Russian groups in the east and south of the country, telling reporters that any meeting without them would not "have any added value."
"Those who protest … want their voices heard," he told reporters, speaking outside a foreign ministers' meeting of the 47-nation Council of Europe. "They want to have an equal voice when it comes to deciding the fate of their own country."
The comments come amid continued violence, which has seen scores killed in clashes between Kyiv forces and pro-Russian groups. On Tuesday, Ukrainian troops tightened a security cordon around the city of Slovyansk as part of the government's most ambitious effort to date to quell unrest in the country's mainly Russian-speaking east.
Lavrov's Ukrainian counterpart, Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia, said that such individuals have no place at negotiations because "as the Ukraine government, we do represent all the regions of Ukraine."
The Russian-Ukrainian impasse on who should be represented at any new round of talks additionally clouded hopes for a quick diplomatic fix to the Ukraine crisis.
Lavrov also demanded that Ukrainian government troops end their armed assaults on rebel strongholds, as fighting flared for control of the strategic city of Slovyansk, where Ukraine's Interior Ministry reported on Monday that 30 rebels and four government soldiers were killed.
"The army should not intervene in the political process," he said, urging an end to Ukraine’s deployment of forces against pro-Russian rebels as a starting point to any settlement of the crisis.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen lamented the actions of Moscow in an interview with Al Jazeera's Stephanie Sy, saying, "Clearly, Russia does not act as a partner."
"Unfortunately, we see Russia act more as an adversary," he said.
Rasmussen characterized Russia's actions as "modern warfare" and added, "We see Russia's hand clearly behind the destabilization in Ukraine."
"I regret to say I think this will be a long-term conflict," he said. "This goes beyond Ukraine. This is about a Russian attempt to re-establish a Russian sphere of influence in the … former Soviet space."
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned on Tuesday that Ukraine was close to war.
"The bloody pictures from Odessa have shown us that we are just a few steps away from a military confrontation," he told major European newspapers.
In Odessa — a previously peaceful, multiethnic Black Sea port — more than 40 people were killed on Friday, the worst day of violence to grip Ukraine since protesters toppled its pro-Russian government in February.
Despites Steinmeier’s remarks, Western anger has not been matched by serious action to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from supporting pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine’s east or ordering an invasion of the country, which many anti-Russian Ukrainians fear he will.
The United States and the European Union have imposed limited sanctions on individual Russians and small Russian firms but have held back from measures designed to hurt Russia’s economy broadly.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, on his Facebook page Tuesday, said the casualty toll in Slovyansk included 20 government troops.
Gun battles around Slovyansk on Monday were the interim government's most ambitious effort to date to quell weeks of unrest in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking east.
Avakov said Monday about 800 pro-Russian fighters in and around Slovyansk were deploying large-caliber weapons and mortars and there were injuries on both sides.
By Tuesday morning, Ukrainian forces had taken hold of a key checkpoint north of the city, dealing a blow to rebel lines of communication. The checkpoint had come under repeated attack since the government offensive began.
In Donetsk, a major city 75 miles south of Slovyansk, international flights were suspended Tuesday. The Donetsk airport said the cancellations followed a government order.
Ukraine is facing its worst crisis in decades as the polarized nation of 46 million tries to decide whether to look toward Europe, as its western regions want to do, or improve ties with Russia, which is favored by the country's many Russian speakers in the east.
Dozens of government offices and police stations in eastern Ukraine have been seized by armed rebels and anti-government crowds over the past several weeks.
The goals of the pro-Russian groups are ostensibly broader powers of autonomy for the region, but some insurgents favor separatism or even joining Russia.
Leaders of the anti-government movement say they plan to hold a referendum on autonomy for eastern regions on May 11, although no visible preparations for the vote have yet been seen.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has put the blame for the unrest squarely on the interim government in Kyiv, which it said "stubbornly continues to wage war against the people of its own country." The ministry has urged what it called the "Kyiv organizers of the terror" to pull back their troops from the east and hold peaceful negotiations to resolve the crisis.
Ukraine authorities, on the other hand, blame Moscow for fomenting unrest in the east, saying it's an attempt to derail Ukraine's May 25 presidential election.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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