MINSK, Belarus — Guns will fall silent, heavy weapons will pull back from the front, and Ukraine will trade a broad autonomy for the east to get back control of its Russian border by the end of this year under a peace deal hammered out Thursday in all-night negotiations among Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
However, the deal was full of potential pitfalls that could derail its implementation. In announcing the plan, Russia and Ukraine differed over what exactly they had agreed to in marathon 16-hour talks, including the status of a key town now under rebel siege.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that the agreement envisages a cease-fire beginning Sunday as well as a special status for Ukraine’s separatist regions and provisions to address border concerns and humanitarian issues.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said there was no agreement on any autonomy or federalization for eastern Ukraine, a longtime demand of Russia, which wants that to maintain leverage over Ukraine and prevent it from ever joining NATO.
The deal, however, requires the Ukrainian parliament to give wide powers to the eastern regions as a condition for restoring Ukraine’s full control over its border with Russia — a provision certain to trigger heated political debate in Kiev.
Uncertainty remained even on the cease-fire, as Putin admitted that he and Poroshenko disagreed on the situation at a key eastern flashpoint, the government-held town of Debaltseve.
“We now have a glimmer of hope,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who brokered the talks in the Belarusian capital of Minsk together with French President Francois Hollande. “But the concrete steps of course have to be taken, and we will still face major obstacles. But, on balance, I can say what we have achieved gives significantly more hope than if we had achieved nothing.”
More than 5,300 people have died since April in the fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and government troops. Battles continued to rage Thursday even as the four leaders were holding peace talks.
The new deal envisions a buffer zone created by pulling back heavy artillery and rocket systems 50 to 140 kilometers (31 to 87 miles) from the front line, depending on their caliber. The withdrawal should begin no later than the second day after the cease-fire becomes effective and it should be completed within two weeks.
In a win for Ukraine, the rebel regions, which held their own elections last fall which Ukraine and the West declared a sham, are obliged to hold a new local vote under the Ukrainian law.
But in a key concession to Russia, the deal says the restoration of Ukrainian control over the border with Russia in rebel-controlled areas could be completed only by the end of 2015 on the condition that Ukraine conducts a constitutional reform granting wide powers to the eastern regions, including the right to form their own police force and trade freely with Russia.
“It was not the best night in my life, but the morning, I think, is good because we have managed to agree on the main things despite all the difficulties of the negotiations,” Putin told reporters.
Hollande said he and Merkel are committed to helping verify the cease-fire process in Ukraine, hailing the deal as a “relief to Europe.”
In Kiev, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that despite the ongoing peace talks, Russia overnight sent 50 tanks and a dozen heavy weapons into Ukraine across the rebel-controlled border.
A previous cease-fire agreed to in September fell apart as Ukrainian forces and the rebels both tried to gain more ground.
Poroshenko stressed that the agreement contains “a clear commitment to withdraw all foreign troops, all mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine,” a reference to the Russian soldiers and weapons that Ukraine and the West say Russia has sent into eastern Ukraine to back the rebels.
Moscow has denied the accusations, saying any Russian fighters were volunteers, but the sheer number of sophisticated heavy weapons in the rebels’ possession belies the denial.
Merkel said that in the end, Putin exerted pressure on the separatists to get them to agree to the cease-fire.
“I have no illusions, we have no illusions. A great, great deal of work is still necessary. But there is a real chance to make things better,” she said.
The French-German diplomatic dash came as President Barack Obama considered sending US lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, a move that European nations feared would only widen the hostilities.
The urgency felt by all sides appeared to be underlined by the extraordinary length and discomfort of the talks, which began Wednesday evening and continued uninterrupted through the night. Crowds of reporters waited anxiously in a marble-floored, chandeliered convention hall in Minsk, with one whisked away by doctors to be treated for exhaustion, according to the Interfax news agency.
While the four leaders hailed the agreement, Russia and Ukraine still disagreed on how to end the fighting around Debaltseve, a key transport hub between the two main rebel-held eastern cities.
Putin said the rebels consider the Ukrainian forces surrounded and expect them to surrender, while Ukraine says its troops have not been blocked.
The Russian leader said the peace deal also determines a division line from which heavy weapons will be pulled back.
The line of division and other key provisions were in a document endorsed by rebel chiefs and the representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. That agreement was endorsed by the four European leaders, who issued a separate declaration.
“We were presented with various unacceptable conditions of withdrawal and surrender,” Poroshenko said. “We did not agree to any ultimatums and stated firmly that the cease-fire that is announced is unconditional.”
Rebel leaders lauded the agreement and said they’re willing to give Kiev another chance.
“(We) give this chance to Ukraine to change its constitution, to change its attitude,” Luhansk rebel leader Igor Plotnitsky said on Russian television.
Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said he will blame Kiev if the cease-fire collapses and then there “will be no meetings and no new agreements.”