“There is already a large number of weapons in the region,” the German chancellor said Saturday.
REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev
A new peace initiative by France and Germany may be "one of the last chances" to end the deadly conflict in Ukraine, French President François Hollande warned Saturday, as debate turned to whether the U.S. should send arms to the Ukrainian military.
Speaking after traveling to Kiev and Moscow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Hollande warned more lives would be lost if the diplomatic effort did not succeed.
"I think this is one of the last chances, that's why we took this initiative," Hollande told reporters, according to France 24 .
"If we don't manage to find not just a compromise but a lasting peace agreement, we know perfectly well what the scenario will be. It has a name. It's called war," he said.
The precise details of the Franco-German initiative are as yet unclear, but Hollande said Saturday it would involve a 31- to 44-mile demilitarized zone around the current front line, which has shifted significantly since the last ceasefire deal was signed in Minsk, Belarus, in September.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Merkel said the plan was worth trying even though "it is uncertain if it will succeed."
Addressing the conference, Vice President Joe Biden said the negotiation efforts were "very much worth the attempt," but said Russia, which the West accuses of arming the separatists, must be "judged by its deeds, not words."
REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
"Too many times President Putin has promised peace and delivered tanks, and troops, and weapons," Biden said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, also at the conference, said there were "good grounds for optimism" on the Franco-German plan.
However, Chancellor Merkel was also critical of proposals being discussed in the U.S. to send arms to the Ukrainian government to help them combat the pro-Russian separatists who have taken over swaths of the country's East. Both Republican and Democrat Senators have urged President Obama to "move quickly" to increase military assistance to Kiev.
"I understand the debate but I believe that more weapons will not lead to the progress Ukraine needs. I really doubt that," Merkel said. "There is already a large number of weapons in the region and I don't see that this has made a military solution more likely."
"The problem is that I can't envision any situation in which a better-equipped Ukraine military would convince President Putin that he could lose militarily."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/16vL83l
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