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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was happy to hear that Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko was ready to discuss decentralization of the government.
Following her meeting with Poroshenko, German Chancellor called on Kyiv and Moscow to reach agreement on tightening control of Russia-Ukraine border, without which regional peace will be impossible to achieve.
For his part, Poroshenko said the Chancellor promised to allocate 500 million euros to restore eastern regions of the country.
RIA Novosti/Yulia Nasulina
More than 400 Ukrainian troops have been allowed to cross into Russia after requesting sanctuary. It’s the largest, but not the first, case of desertion into Russia by Ukrainian soldiers involved in Kiev’s military 
crackdown in the east of the country.
According to the Rostov Region’s border guard spokesman Vasily Malaev, a total of 438 soldiers, including 164 Ukrainian border guards, have been allowed into Russia on Sunday night.
One of the Ukrainians was seriously injured on his arrival in Russia. He was taken to the hospital for surgery, the officials added.
The other Ukrainian soldiers have been housed in a tent camp deployed near the checkpoint via which they entered Russian territory. The Russian border guards are providing them with food and bedding.
Footage taken by the Russian media at the scene showed the Ukrainian soldiers being handed ration packs and resting in their temporary shelter. Those who agreed to speak on camera said they were relieved to be in safety for the first time in weeks.
Germany and Russia have been working on a secret plan to broker a peaceful solution to end international tensions over the Ukraine.
The Independent can reveal that the peace plan, being worked on by both Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, hinges on two main ambitions: stabilising the borders of Ukraine and providing the financially troubled country with a strong economic boost, particularly a new energy agreement ensuring security of gas supplies.
More controversially, if Ms Merkel’s deal were to be acceptable to the Russians, the international community would need to recognise Crimea’s independence and its annexation by Russia, a move that some members of the United Nations might find difficult to stomach.
Sources close to the secret negotiations claim that the first part of the stabilisation plan requires Russia to withdraw its financial and military support for the various pro-separatist groups operating in eastern Ukraine. As part of any such agreement, the region would be allowed some devolved powers.
At the same time, the Ukrainian President would agree not to apply to join Nato. In return, President Putin would not seek to block or interfere with the Ukraine’s new trade relations with the European Union under a pact signed a few weeks ago.
Second, the Ukraine would be offered a new long-term agreement with Russia’s Gazprom, the giant gas supplier, for future gas supplies and pricing. At present, there is no gas deal in place; Ukraine’s gas supplies are running low and are likely to run out before this winter, which would spell economic and social ruin for the country.
As part of the deal, Russia would compensate Ukraine with a billion-dollar financial package for the loss of the rent it used to pay for stationing its fleets in the Crimea and at the port of Sevastopol on the Black Sea until Crimea voted for independence in March.
Read more on The Independent‘s website.
REUTERS / KIEV
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk tendered his resignation on Thursday to parliament after upbraiding politicians for failing to pass laws on energy and on the budget to increase financing for the army.
“I announce my resignation in connection with the collapse of the coalition and the blocking of government initiatives,” he told parliament.
Russia’s president has laid the blame for the ongoing turmoil between Kiev and south-eastern regions squarely at the feet of Petro Poroshenko, after the Ukrainian leader terminated the ceasefire.
He has stressed that Russia and European partners could not convince Poroshenko to not take the path of violence, which can’t lead to peace.
“Unfortunately, President Poroshenko has made the decision to resume military actions, and we – meaning myself and my colleagues in Europe – could not convince him that the way to reliable, firm and long-term peace can’t lie through war,” Putin said. “So far, Petro Poroshenko had no direct relation to orders to take military action. Now he has taken on this responsibility in full. Not only military, but also political, more importantly.”
On Monday, the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine held a phone call in which Putin stressed the need to prolong the ceasefire and the creation of “a reliable mechanism for monitoring compliance with it and the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] should play an active role.”
Russia offered that checkpoints on the Russian side should be monitored by representatives of the Ukrainian Border service as well as OSCE observers for “the joint control of the border.”
As the violent conflict continues in the east of Ukraine and the number of refugees fleeing to Russia grows, Putin vowed to provide help to everyone who needs it.
“Everything that’s going on in Ukraine is of course the internal business of Ukrainian government, but we are painfully sorry that people die, civilians,” Putin said. He added that the killing of journalists was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“In my opinion, there is a deliberate attempt to eliminate representatives of the press going on. It concerns both Russian and foreign journalists,” the president said.
KIEV (RFE/RL)—Armenia’s leaders have been invited to attend the inauguration of Ukraine’s newly elected President Petro Poroshenko in what a senior Ukrainian diplomat 
portrayed on Thursday as proof of Kiev’s readiness to repair relations with Yerevan.
Ivan Kukhta, the Ukrainian ambassador to Armenia, indicated that President Serzh Sarkisian’s decision to recognize Poroshenko’s victory in the May 25 presidential election paved the way for the normalization of bilateral ties. He said Sarkisian’s move was the main reason why he returned to Yerevan more than two months after being recalled by the Ukrainian government in protest against a positive Armenian reaction to an internationally condemned referendum in Crimea.
“Relations between Ukraine and Armenia have always been, are and will be good,” Kukhta told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “After two-month consultations [in Kiev] I want to point out that Armenia was one of the first countries to recognize the May 25 presidential election in Ukraine. President Sarkisian congratulated Ukraine’s President-elect Poroshenko, thereby indicating that Armenia recognizes the election result.”
“This was a very friendly diplomatic step,” stressed the ambassador.
Kukhta said that he met with Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on his return to Yerevan on Sunday and that they both reaffirmed their governments’ commitment to deepening bilateral ties. In that regard, he said, the Ukrainian government has invited Armenian leaders to attend Poroshenko’s inauguration slated for Saturday.
“To my knowledge, the Armenian side is ready to send a representative,” added the diplomat.
The Armenian president angered the interim government in Kiev in March when he welcomed the referendum in Crimea that led to the Ukrainian region’s annexation by Russia. Armenia went on to vote against a pro-Ukrainian resolution on Crimea that was overwhelmingly adopted by the UN General Assembly.
“Armenia explained its position in this way: the principle of peoples’ self-determination is its main foreign policy tenet and Yerevan was therefore guided by that principle,” said Kukhta. “Armenia said it has nothing against Ukraine and is simply in favor of peoples’ self-determination.”
The United States is being hypocritical in its response to the armed clashes between Kiev and pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine, former Congressman Ron Paul wrote in a new column.
In the column, published by the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, the former libertarian lawmaker questioned the American role in the conflict unfolding in Ukraine, criticizing the US for blaming recent outbreaks of violence on Russian sympathizers rather than the Ukrainian military.
The column comes just a few days after the Ukrainian military killed about 20 people in Mariupol, where the country’s Interior Ministry claimed that pro-Russia militants attempted to seize the local police building. Residents in the area, meanwhile, stated that local police did not want to take orders from Kiev, and that sparked a response by the military that ended up engulfing outsiders who arrived in support of the officers.
Following a statement by the US State Department that pinned the blame on pro-Russia separatists, Paul wrote the American government should not support Ukraine’s use of military force against its own people, particularly if they are unarmed.
According to Paul, this position is a reversal of what the US was saying before protesters effectively overthrew their former government in Kiev, led by former president Viktor Yanukovich. During that time, the US urged the government not to respond with violence when protesters stormed buildings. “But now that those former protesters have come to power,” Paul wrote, “the US takes a different view of protest.”
“The US sees this as a Russian-sponsored destabilization effort, but is it so hard to understand that the people in Ukraine may be annoyed with the US and EU for their involvement in regime change in their country?” he asked. “Would we be so willing to accept an unelected government in Washington put in place with the backing of the Chinese and Iranians?”
Paul also criticized the US for threatening to implement additional sanctions against Russia should votes for increased autonomy move forward in eastern Ukraine. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a delay in the vote, it went ahead anyway, a development that Paul believes shows Russia is not in control of the anti-Kiev movement.
Finally, Paul questioned why the US is involved in Ukraine at all.
“We are broke,” he wrote. “We cannot even afford to fix our own economy. Yet we want to run Ukraine? Does it really matter who Ukrainians elect to represent them? Is it really a national security matter worth risking a nuclear war with Russia whether Ukraine votes for more regional autonomy and a weaker central government?”
Source: RT
April 26, 2014 – 13:51 AMT
The president of Georgia warned Western countries on Friday, April 25, against alienating Russia over the Ukraine crisis, the Associated Press reported.
In an interview with the AP in Prague, Giorgi Margvelashvili said that could have consequences for the rest of Europe.
“I don’t think it’s a right choice to alienate Russia, to cut relations with Russia,” Margvelashvili said. “Because alienating Russia makes Russia even more aggressive, unpredictable and dangerous.”
He said diplomats should instead make it clear to Russia “that relations between neighbors or countries around the world aren’t built through military interventions.”
Georgia plans to sign a political association agreement with the 28-nation European Union in June to boost ties and get a free-trade deal and visa-free travel. Moldova is another post-Soviet republic planning to sign a similar agreement.
Ukraine did so on the same day last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed parliamentary legislation annexing Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula.
Russian forces crushed the Georgian army in a brief 2008 war over Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The two regions then immediately claimed independence but have been recognized only by Russia and a few of its allies.
Margvelashvili said it was important to convince Russia that “this is not an anti-Russian track.”
He said his country was not afraid of any retaliation by neighboring Russia for the EU move but added: “We are cautious.”
“This is a sovereign decision of our nation and I don’t think that anyone has the right to punish either Georgia, or Moldova or Ukraine, for taking sovereign decisions in the 21st century,” Margvelashvili told reporters earlier Friday.
Margvelashvili was in Prague for a two-day summit of presidents of post-Soviet nations with their European Union counterparts.
war was the result of years of US and NATO moves to the east, building relations and increasing support for Georgia, for which the Russians drew a line in the sand, declaring that Georgia would never be allowed to become a member of NATO. The Russian military response in 2008 changed the game between the West and the East, after several decades of Russia being encroached upon by the West, Russia pushed back, leaving the West at a loss for how to react. The lessons of Georgia can be seen in the current conflict in Ukraine. But the lessons have yet to be learned. – See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/04/16/empire-power-people-with-andrew-gavin-marshall-episode-108/#sthash.ReVij2Ir.dpufPanARMENIAN.Net – Ethnic Armenian Ruben Avanesyan, killed in a standoff between Ukraine’s pro-Russian activists and ultranationalists, was commemorated at rally in Donetsk.
Avanesyan died of a gunshot wound he received during an attack in the town of Slavyansk.
The rally speaker Miroslav Rudnenko called to honor the Avanesyan, survived by two young children, with a minute of silence.
At a rally, Rudenko recounted details of the attack. According to him, pro-Russian activists’ cars were chased by 2 vehicles when delivering aid to fellow activists in Slavyansk. At one point, the third vehicle blocked the way of the unarmed activists, who were then shelled by the Right Sector ultranationalists.
Some activists managed to escape in of the cars. Ruben died in the attack, another activist is comatose in a hospital, and the third received a light injury, Rudenko said.
As noted in conclusion, the attack wasn’t left unpunished.
Earlier, Batkivshchyna All-Ukrainian Union MP Lesya Orobets reported the death of 10 pro-Russian activists as “positive news” on her Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the Donetsk Oblast internal affairs ministry’s main department denied the report of 10 deaths in Slavyansk shooting, Rosbalt said.
