Ukraine President offers talks with rebels, Vladimir Putin supports

Siversk: Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin both called for dialogue on Sunday to end a pro-Moscow uprising that has threatened the state’s survival and brought Europe to the edge of all-out war.

The twin calls from the central figures of the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War era both came with conditions and the ragtag militias in Ukraine’s eastern rustbelt showing no desire to end their independence drive.

Mr Poroshenko called a peaceful settlement “our plan A”.

“But those who are planning to use peaceful negotiations only to buy time and regroup their forces must know that we have a detailed plan B. I am not going to speak of it now because I believe that our peaceful plan will work out,” he said.

Mr Putin promised to stand behind Poroshenko's peace efforts as long as they led to “substantial dialogue” and resulted in ethnic Russians winning broader language and other civil rights. “Russia will certainly support these intentions. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is a political process,” he said.